


Act V Act II: Shatter

by Lopadopalis



Series: Yggdrasil [10]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Tragedy, Anime-esque fights, Canon Compliant, Destruction, Dimension Travel, Dragons, Earth C (Homestuck), Fighting, I'm Sorry, Multi, Over the Top, Plotline Duplication, Pretend the Universe is a Program, Reality Affecting Program, Technically there are original characters here, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 18:41:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 27,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29140194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lopadopalis/pseuds/Lopadopalis
Summary: The follow-up to all the previous stories in Yggdrasil.Shade and Forrester continue thase after Shatter, his plan soon to come to fruition.
Relationships: Original Character(s) & Original Character(s)
Series: Yggdrasil [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1805818
Kudos: 1





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> Surprise surprise, it's the series that no one but my pals over Discord read! I'm kidding, I don't really care. I write for myself first. Speaking of, sometimes I feel like I'm writing an anime. It kinda feels like one.

Five figures float in the void between universes.

“So, what’s the plan?” Shard asks.

“Well, here’s the deal.” Shatter says. “I’ve stolen Shade’s powers, or rather copied them. Now I’ve got the same plotline duplication powers as him.”

“And he won’t be interfering?” Shackle asks in that sing-song voice of his.

“Hopefully not, although the future is not set in stone. Even still, I might still need him if things go south.” Shatter says.

“Right.” Shard says.

“Regardless, here’s the plan;” Shatter says. “I’m going to test out my stolen powers on the eighth weirdest timeline in Five, just to see if they work.”

“Eighth weirdest?” Sharpen asks. “Why eighth?”

“Shut up, it doesn’t matter.” Shatter says. Sharpen looks a little downcast.

“What’s it called?” Shadow asks.

“It’s… M.C Escher something or other.” Shatter says. “I didn’t bother to read the whole thing. It’s not important. What is important is that you four haven’t done any damage.”

“Well, you’re right about that.” Shadow mutters.

“Pick a timeline, any timeline, and damage it somehow.” Shatter says. “I think you’ll each need to kill a minimum of two to three characters to make it past to get to the outer Core.”

“Oh, great. So what’s the plan on your end?” Sharpen asks.

“I’m busting to Universe “Two.” All the way.” Shatter says. “I’ve gotta drop this.” He gestures to the canister that suddenly appeared in his hand.

“To kill the Cancer, right?” Shadow asks.

“What the fuck else would I be doing?” Shatter asks.

“I just thought-” Shadow begins.

“Shut up.” Shatter says, and Shadow winces. “Once I’ve dropped this, I’m heading back to Five. We’ll hit the Core, boost my stolen powers with the help of the thing in Two, and then kill it.”

“What about the casualties?” Shard asks.

“Who gives a shit about them?” Shatter says. “Think of what we can do! This is our chance to do what no one else has ever been able to do!”

“You’re right.” Shard says. “I might not agree with you all the way, but you’re right.”

“Alright.” Shatter says. “We’re settled?”

“Well, I mean…” Shackle starts, and Shatter cuts him off.

“ _ Shackle. _ ” he says in a slightly menacing tone. “Are we settled?”

“I… yes.” Shackle says, rather hesitantly.

“You four pick wherever the hell you want, and I’m gonna bust up Escher-verse and head for Two.” Shatter says. “I’ll meet you back at the Core. Try not to die.”

Shatter disappears in a wink of light.

“Want to try an Act 7?” Shackle asks, his voice musical as ever.

“Why not?” Shard says. “More to see, more to do.”

The four of them disappear one after another in flashes of light, and the void between worlds goes silent once more.

**TIMELINE [REDACTED]**

Earth C is peaceful. Pleasant. It’s also home to several versions of the same people because of various shenanigans that do not need explanation. If you happen to know the story behind them, good for you. It’s me, Shatter, by the way. I’m testing my narration powers. I won’t bother with a special font or colour. You know it’s me, and besides, these things take for fucking ever to format, or so dad used to say. I haven’t the faintest what the frack he meant. Allow me to list the characters for your convenience. There are two Johns, two Roses, two Daves, two Jades, two Janes, two Roxies, two Dirks, two Jakes, two Aradias, one Tavros, two Solluxes, two Karkats, a Nepeta, two Kanayas, two Terezis, a pair of Vriskas, an Equius, one Gamzee, an Eridan, a Feferi, a Damara, Rufioh, Mituna, Kankri, Meulin, Porrim, Latula, Aranea, Horuss, Kurloz, Cronus, Meenah, only one Calliope, a human-troll hybrid Hal, two Nannasprites (Obviously), Gcatavrosprite, Jasprosesprite^2, Arquiusprite, Davepetasprite^2, a version of John’s Dad, the Summoner, the Psiioniic, the Signless, the Disciple, the Dolorosa, Redglare, Mindfang, and Executor Darkleer. 63 people, if you did the math. And now, they’re all going to die.

A dark figure hangs in the sky, and all of the gods of Earth C can see it. Its hands flicker with light, and it is suddenly wreathed in golden flame. I smile, and the fire around me brightens. In a single instant, it explodes in all directions as hundreds of beams of light that soar through the air, dance for a moment, then shoot towards the 63 gods. Chasing, seeking, hungering to kill.

One of the Dirks is the first to go, followed closely by one of the Jakes. Panic ensues as everyone whips out their weaponry from their sylladexes and attempt to beat back the tidal wave of stabbing golden light. It doesn’t work of course, why would it?

Horuss, Damara, and Rufioh are vanished in a flash.

A John and a Jane turn to flee and are ripped away from existence as the light tears past them.

A Jade teleports out of the way of one of the beams of energy and is caught by a second one when she reappears.

Both Solluxes, Mituna, and the Psiioniic are blasting energy at the onslaught, which only works for a good ten seconds before they’re all torn apart.

Equius and hybrid Hal dodge one blast and get annihilated by another.

Gamzee, Kurloz, and Meulin are busy stoned off their minds and barely react when they get disintegrated.

The second John retcons out of the way next to Arquiusprite, and both get caught in a blast.

The two Aradias share a mutual ‘oh fuck’ glance and try to jump through time. Unfortunately for them, this energy transcends time and catches them anyway.

A Dave grabs his Karkat and tries to escape, only to fly right into a blast.

One of the Terezis and one of the Vriskas embrace before they’re both unwritten.

Gcatavrosprite and regular Tavros get caught between two bursts.

The first of two Roxys and the second Jane try to fly away, only to get caught between five separate light-spears seeking them.

Eridan trips, and he and Feferi get caught when she goes back for him.

Signless and Disciple accept their inevitable fate, and hold hands before they’re shredded.

The two Nannasprites form a defensive barrier in front of Jake and Dirk, but the energy blasts right through it and takes all four of them in one swoop.

Jasprosesprite^2 and Davepetasprite^2 get nicked by one blast that knocks them out of the sky, and then a second one comes back around to finish the job.

Cronus seems to be trying to survive by hiding in somebody’s empty house. It goes right through the wall (without breaking it of course) and scoops him up in an instant.

A Rose and her Kanaya try and fail to run away, gone just like that.

The second Rose and Kanaya try to fly away along with the second Dave and Karkat, and both are painlessly burned away.

Jade is trying to carry Nepeta to safety while Latula calms herself nearby and Darkleer freaks the fuck out. A lancing brightness kills all four.

Kankri tries to fly away using his god tier powers and gets blasted.

Dolorosa and John’s Dad share a hug and get blasted.

Redglare and Mindfang along with Terezi and Vriska share a ‘we’re fucked’ expression with one another before being blasted away.

Porrim and Aranea twiddle their thumbs as they accept their fates. They are blasted.

Meenah tries to throw her trident, but it is knocked aside by the light and she is blasted.

Which of course leaves two, if you’re keeping track.

An even dozen energy tendrils dance through the sky as they chase Roxy and Calliope. Roxy balls her girlfriend’s fist up, the one with the ring, and covers it with her other hand.

“I love you.” She whispers just before she voids Calliope away and is vanished by the light.

Oh.

So  _ that _ ’s where Chrono comes from. How about that?

But I digress.

With its primary targets taken, the light folds back into me, and I vanish away from this timeline.

It takes two minutes for the civilians to overcome their shock and begin screaming.


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fighting. But not really. Characters. Chaos.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After that weirdness, it's time for the other four people.

Shard appears on Earth C’s surface, Shadow following her. Sharpen arrives next, and Shackle takes a full minute to actually show up.

“What took you so long?” Shard asks once Shackle arrives.

“It was pretty outside, all those timelines.” Shackle says. “I thought I’d have a look at them.”

“Everything is pretty to you, isn’t it?” Sharpen asks.

“Oh yeah, I know that.” Shackle says. “You know I know that, right?”

“So, we’ve gotta cause some damage.” Shard says. “Which ones do you want?”

“Well, let’s see which ones there are.” Sharpen says.

“John, Rose, Dave, Jade, Jane, Roxy, Dirk, Jake, Karkat, Kanaya, Terezi, and Calliope.” Shard says. “Aradia and Sollux are here too, but they’re not in this universe, they’re still back in SBURB. They’re currently in four different groups. So, which ones do you guys want?”

“I call dibs on Dave, Jade, and Karkat.” Shackle says, already shooting off.

“Well, that settles that.” Shadow says, before choosing to say “Rose and Kanaya.”

“I’ll take John, Jane, Terezi, Dirk, and Jake.” Sharpen says. “This’ll be interesting.”

As Shadow and Sharpen head their separate ways, Shard shoots off towards Roxy and Calliope’s home.

7 PM, the Carapace Kingdom.

In an apartment, Rose is making dinner while Kanaya stares at the fading sunset out the window. The city they’re in is peaceful and quiet. Rose pauses what she’s doing for a moment to go over to Kanaya and rest her hand on her shoulder.

“Oh. Hello Rose.” Kanaya says.

“Pretty sunset.” Rose says.

“Yes it is.” Kanaya says.

“Kanaya,” Rose says, “Something’s wrong.”

“What do you mean?” Kanaya asks.

“I feel like there’s something incredibly wrong with… everything.” Rose says. “Like something that is not supposed to be here has arrived.”

“What do you mean by that, Rose?” Kanaya asks.

“Hold on a minute, there’s something…” Rose trails off and stares up at the sky. She’s about to say something else, but is cut off when a beam of energy hits her in the back and slams her into the window, and she slumps to the floor. Kanaya whirls around with a hiss, her chainsaw already exiting her sylladex as she steps in front of Rose. Shadow cracks his neck.

“That wasn’t very hard.” he says. Kanaya hisses at him in defensive fury. “Oh, shut up. Shall we get this over with?” he asks. His hands crackle with electricity, and he smiles as he steps towards her as she revs her chainsaw.

6 PM, the Troll Kingdom.

Dave and Karkat are sitting on the couch of their living room watching some romcom while Jade sits in the next room over, reading. They’re being awkward around each other, especially since they kissed yesterday and made their relationship official, but because Jade’s still in the house, neither of them wants to really act like they’re in any sort of relationship because the whole thing makes them uncomfortable when others are watching. Their movie watching is interrupted when Shackle smashes through the wall, leaving a large hole as he stumbles to his feet and rubs the wood splinters and dust out of his hair. He turns to face Dave and Karkat as Jade cautiously peeks her head into the room.

“Now I’m not going to spend a lot of time fucking around with this, so let’s just get to the point.” Shackle says. He cracks his neck, and fires a blast of energy from his hands that knocks everyone backwards into the wall.

5 PM, the Human Kingdom.

Jane is giving some speech in a boardroom of Crockercorp Spire with Dirk and Jake, but John is mostly tuning out what she’s saying. In the end, he decides to go up to the roof (which you can apparently just do) and finds Terezi standing up there, staring at the setting sun and the red sky, probably pondering how good it smells.

“Couldn’t stand Jane’s speech?” Terezi asks.

“Eh.” John says. “I just kind of tuned the whole thing out.”

“She talks so much and says so little.” Terezi says.

“Wow, that’s…” John searches for the word. “Wise.”

“Yes, John.” Terezi says deadpan. “Paradox Space has made me very wise.”

John scoffs. “Speaking of… are you ever going back?”

Terezi’s posture shifts. “Oh.” she says. “I don’t know. It’s…” she sighs. “Agh, it’s complicated. I don’t know whether she’s dead or not, that’s why I came back, but since there’s a chance she’s still alive I want to go back but if she’s dead I could be out there forever…”

“You should stay.” John says.

“Egbert, I…” Terezi starts to say, but pauses. She sniffs once. “What’s that?”

“What’s what?” John asks, and Terezi doesn’t respond, simply whipping around with a snarl.

“Hi there.” Sharpen says as he steps onto the roof, having flown down from the sky.

“Who are you?” John asks.

“You can call me Sharpen.” Sharpen says. A flaming sword appears in his hand. “I’m here to kill you, by the way. My motives do not concern you in particular, I just need to kill a couple of you so I can get access to some greater functions in this universe.”

Sharpen steps towards John, smiling, and he and Terezi draw their weapons.

8 PM, the Consort Kingdom.

Roxy and Calliope are out for a late evening walk, the sun having set. The park is dark and quiet. It’s peaceful. The stars have come out, and the two of them like to sit on this one bench on a hill and stare at them for an hour or so and just talk about whatever is on their minds. Every night is the same. Except for this night. This night will be different. Roxy has sworn that she will tell Calliope how she really feels.

Of course, neither of them could account for a new variable in Earth C’s fate.

They’re walking along calmly when they see the woman standing on the path ahead of them. She’s staring directly at them, directly into Roxy’s eyes.

“Hello.” Shard says.

“Hello?” Roxy asks.

“My brothers would skip right to the point on this.” Shard says. “I don’t think I will. Might as well give a little bit of explanation.”

“Explanation for what?” Roxy asks as Calliope shrinks behind her.

“My name is Shard.” Shard says. “I am a living breathing program. A physical one. It’s hard to explain to those who have little knowledge of universal programming and are unaware of the true powers one can wield with it.” She shrugs. “I won’t get into details. Regardless, I’m here on a very specific mission.”

“What mission?” Roxy asks as Calliope tugs at her hand.

“Roxy, I don’t like this.” Calliope says. “Let’s just get out of here.”

“I’m supposed to get to the Core of this universe.” Shard says. “From there, one of my brothers can use his power to destroy an entity that will continue to cause destruction and death.” She pauses. “I suppose one could refer to it like that.”

“So…” Roxy says. “You’re here to help?”

“Cosmically, yes.” Shard says. “Locally, no. I have to stir the pot.”

“What do you mean by that?” Roxy hesitantly asks as she takes a step back.

“You see…” Shard says as she steps towards the two of them, “In order to get access to things like the Core, you need to bust up a timeline in some way. I can easily get to the Core, given my power levels, unlike certain elemental drones, which solves half of the problem. As for busting up a timeline, usually the only way to get past is to damage the way the narrative is supposed to flow. Of course, the best results occur when several important people are killed.”

Roxy draws Bro’s Katana at the same time that Shard creates a blade of pure energy in her hand, sparking with electricity and causing tiny motes of flame to drift to the ground. “Stay behind me, Callie.” Roxy says as Shard steps forwards.

* * *

Shard, Shadow, Shackle, and Sharpen meet back up in an abandoned warehouse in New New York. “I take it none of you got any casualties.” Shard says. “Considering I can’t sense any major deaths. What’d you get?”

“Well, I killed a few people in a boardroom.” Sharpen says. “… by accident.”

“I triggered some of Dave’s ptsd, which should give him some issues.” Shackle says.

“I may have just made Kanaya angrier.” Shadow says.

Shard sighs and pinches her nose. “Alright, let’s just… wait for them to group up. Then we’ll strike at them.”

“Is it possible the reason we didn’t do anything was because we were offscreen?” Shackle asks.

“That doesn’t matter.” Shard says. “Let’s just try this again tomorrow. Wait for them to calm down, then go in for the kill.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Shadow says.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was weird. My stories are always weird.


	3. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Preparations and death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm running out of ideas for things to say in summaries and notes.

Shade opens his eyes. Sunlight is streaming in through the blinds. He can hear people talking. He heads into the now repaired and not-bloody dining room, where Forrester is sitting along with John and Terezi.

“Hey Shade!” John says. “Your dad gave us physical forms. Thought we’d been sitting in your head too long.”

“Right.” Shade says. “So what, are you coming with me?”

“Guess so.” Terezi says with a shrug.

“Crazy.” Forrester says. “It’s gonna be the four of us, and we’ll be followed by Harley, Roxy, and Nicol and his brother.”   
“Please don’t call me that.” a voice says, and they turn to see a brunette woman leaning against the doorframe.

“Holy shit, did you just say please?” Forrester asks.

“Shut up.” she says. “Call me Libra.”

“Why don’t you like your old name?” Forrester asks. “No, seriously, I don’t actually know.”

“I never really cared about forcibly trans-d,” Libra says. “But I did not like being forced to not be a dragon. Also, I got some of my powers stripped away, which I’m not happy about.”

“Huh.” Forrester says. “How ‘bout that. So what, he gives you all the jobs that satisfy your sadistic desires?”

“I could do without the paperwork, but the slaughter and the conquering makes up for it.” Libra says, flashing a shark teeth grin. “Can’t believe I have to work with my brother.”

“Mm-mm.” Forrester shakes his head. “Sister.”

“Sister?” Libra asks. “What, did he actually lean into that?”

“No, he made an alternate personality and went off to work on his Discount Wanderer’s Library.” Forrester says. “Sorry.”

“He made himself an alternate personality?” Libra asks, and sighs. “Dammit. Why couldn’t I do that? Fuck.”

“Because you’re evil.” Forrester says. “And he’s not.”

“I’m going to kill him.” Libra says.

“You’ve already done that twice, haven’t you?” Forrester asks.

“Yes, I suppose I have.” Libra has. “Damn. I should talk to him. Ask him how he made an alternate personality.”

“Going to him for advice, how about that.” Forrester says. “How are you dealing with that grief?”

Libra shifts uncomfortably. “Fine.” she says in an unconvincing voice.

Forrester squints at her. “Ha!” he suddenly says, jumping up and pointing. “Guilt induced redemption arc! How about that.”

“Shut up.” Libra says. “It’s not a redemption arc.”

“Moreover, I can’t help but notice that you’re actually starting to like your brother more.” Forrester says. “Is it me, or are you actually becoming a better person?”

“Shuddup, no I’m not.” Libra says. “This conversation is over.” With that, she disappears in a flash of light.

“I did not expect that.” Shade says.

“Can’t believe I actually sent him running.” Forrester says.

“Yeah, that’s not very common.” Shade says.

“She’s a him?” John asks.

“Yes.” Forrester says. “Male dragon stuck in a female human body. Apparently it was for…”

“Plotline compliance.” Shade finishes for him.

“That’s it.” Forrester says.

“That’s weird.” John says.

“You think that’s weird?” Shade asks. “You should see his brother.”

“Who is technically also his sister thanks to the alternate personality thing he made.” Forrester says. “It’s weird. Don’t think too much about it.”

“Yeah, that is very weird.” John says.

“So, Shade picked you up?” Forrester asks.

“Yep.” John says at the same time Terezi says “Actually, he killed us.”

“My subconscious killed you, for the last time.” Shade says.

“Technically, Shatter killed you.” Forrester says.

“Must you bother me about who killed who?” Shade asks.

“Think she likes watching you squirm.” John says.

“Yes, I’m aware.” Shade says. “She does the same to you.” John shrugs.

“So are we like…” John pauses. “Agents of relevance or whatever?”

“Yes.” Shade says. “You totally are.”

“Oh, great.” John says.

“We’ve digressed.” Forrester says. “Shade picked you up on the way, and now you’re sticking with us.”

“We already went over this.” Terezi says.

“Yes, we did.” Forrester says.

“We should get going soon.” Shade says.

“It’s gonna be pretty boring for a while there.” Forrester says. “Just so you know.”

“I know.” Shade says. “Sitting around, waiting for a proper penetration of the timeline.”

“You really want to get on with it?” Forrester asks.

“Totally.” Shade says. “Let’s do this.”

“Right.” Forrester says. “John, ‘Rezi, let’s go.”

“Yay.” John says as Forrester creates a perfect red halo of energy out of thin air, a dark void beyond it. Forrester snaps his fingers, and a brief orange flash illuminates John and Terezi.

“Right, follow me.” Forrester says, and then steps inside, Shade, John, and Terezi following him through the portal and onwards to an uncertain future.

* * *

Rose tries to see the most fortuitous route once again and fails. She sighs. She has no idea what comes next. Every attempt draws a blank. The gods of Earth C are flying blind towards an uncertain future. The 12 of them have gotten into groups of four. Rose and Kanaya are with Dave and Karkat. Dirk and Jake are with Roxy and Calliope (who have gotten together now). John, Jane, Jade, and Terezi have grouped up as well. Rose’s group is up in the mountains with a clear view of the city in the nearby valley. With the future unknown, Rose isn’t entirely certain what to do other than wait and see what happens. It doesn’t take very long.

Rose is staring at the city below as the sun sets, a strange quiet settling over everything. She’s thinking at the moment, thinking about how she can sense the Green Sun. As soon as morning comes, she’ll be able to see it in the sky. For now, she can only sense it. She’s sure Jade can sense it too. She hasn’t told anyone else about it yet, as she is still trying to figure out how to tell them the information. She is also thinking about what this means on a cosmic scale. If the Green Sun has spontaneously returned to existence, then these new beings must have something to do with it. What that ‘something’ is, she isn’t sure. She-

Wait a second.

Why can’t she sense the Green Sun anymore?

It was there, it was  _ right there _ , and now-

Oh.

What’s that…

Feeling?

Rose looks down and sees a sword blade protruding from her chest.

“Shackle, Shadow and I thought we’d get the jump on you like that.” Sharpen whispers in her ear. “We reboot the sun, that startles you and Jade, then Shackle absorbs the sun, obscuring it from both of your visions, giving Shadow and I enough time to sneak in close and get both of you while you’re unaware.” Sharpen chuckles as Rose gasps for air. He pulls the sword out of her back and she collapses to the ground. “Now, as long as we get the rest of you nice and quiet like that…” he smiles as he turns the sword into a small dagger and stabs her in the neck, “This shouldn’t be much trouble, getting past all of you. Goodbye Rose Lalonde.”

With that, Sharpen disappears, joining his brothers and sister somewhere else. Rose dies quietly, hoping beyond hope that Kanaya will hear her sputtered coughs as her lungs fill with blood. Kanaya finds her half an hour later, and Dave and Karkat hold her as she cries, cradling Rose’s corpse.

Shard - 0/2 Kills

Shadow - 0/2 Kills

Shackle - 0/2 Kills

Sharpen - 1/2 Kills

Gods - 1/14 Dead

SHATTER PROGRESS LOG - 0/5

Universe “Five”

Universe “Four”

Universe “Three”

Universe “Two”

The Pit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rose dead. Here we go again.


	4. Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Buildup.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Sample Text]

“I should never have let her out of my sight.” Kanaya says as the eleven gods stand around in the mountain house’s living room. They buried Rose out back three hours ago, and Kanaya has been doing her best to not lose her cool. “We should’ve all just stuck together.”

“And of course there’s the matter of the Green Sun.” Jake says. “Like you said, Jade.”

“Yeah, it blipped into and out of existence for a good hour.” Jade says. “Sort of. It still exists, but it… isn’t here. Someone’s moved it. I have no idea where.”

“I can’t sense it either.” Calliope says. “Well I can, but… I don’t know where it is.”

“What I don’t get is why it was back.” John says.

“It could have been a distraction.” Jade says. “One of them came after me. I survived through pure luck as well as my rekindled first guardian powers.”

“So does anyone have any fucking clue what we’re going to do now?” Karkat asks. “I mean, we can’t find these things coming after us, they seem to know our patterns well and can be fairly stealthy judging by how they somehow managed to get the jump on Rose and Jade.”

“No need to be so negative.” Jake says.

“Well, have you got a plan, Jake?” Karkat asks. “Because I’m… I…”   
“Hey.” Dave says, putting his arm around Karkat, “Keep it together.”

“We do need a plan though.” John says. “I mean… what are we going to do about this?”

“Well, since we have no knowledge of their patterns, behaviours, personalities, defenses, powers, or anything else of that sort, we don’t have any way to predict where they will be, what they will do, when they will do it, or how brutally painful their attacks will be.” Jane says.

“Real reassuring, Jane.” Karkat says.

The door to the house suddenly opens with little warning, and Aradia prances inside, Sollux following behind her, feeling his way around the walls and bumping into a table. “Oh no, did we miss the entire corpse party?” Aradia asks. “I hope not.”

“Yes, that would be such a tragedy.” Sollux sarcastically says.

“Oh shush, you.” Aradia says. “The tragedy is what we don’t want to miss.”

“Sollux? Aradia?” Karkat asks. “Holy shit, what are you doing here?”

“Well,” Aradia says, drawing out the sound of the twin ls, “We kinda got shunted out of SBURB’s universe for some reason, and since we were kind of stuck here, we decided to go looking for you guys. But we didn’t know you were having a corpse party!”

“I want no part of any of this.” Sollux mutters, then wanders upstairs to the second floor of the house, leaving Aradia to awkwardly make her creepy smile at the eleven other people sitting around in the living room.

“You two should stick with us.” Dirk says. “We’ve got a problem. A huge problem.”

“You mean the four godlike entities who kept eerily following me and Sollux?” Aradia asks.

“Holy shit, you mean they  _ didn’t _ just try and kill you on sight?” Karkat asks in confusion.

“I think they just wanted us out of Paradox Space.” Aradia says. “And when we didn’t go, they forced us out.”

“That’s… strange.” Calliope says. “They tried to kill us, but they left you alone?”

“Well, as soon as we got out they tried to kill us.” Aradia says, then shrugs, still smiling.

“So they don’t want us in Paradox Space, then?” Calliope asks.

“Maybe?” Aradia shrugs again. “I dunno.”

“This bed feels like a rock.” Sollux half-shouts from the second floor.

“It’s just because you haven’t lain on anything soft for a long time, Sollux.” Aradia half-shouts back. Sollux’s response is a groan. “He’s still annoyed because he nearly died.”

“They don’t want us in Paradox Space…” Calliope whispers. “That must mean it’s important. They don’t want us going there.” She suddenly stands. “We should go back. They must have a plan that we might be able to throw off.”

“But how can we get back?” Jade asks. “There isn’t a way back.”

“Yes there is.” Calliope says, then turns to John. “John can use his retcon powers. He can zap us back into Paradox Space and The Medium.”

“I can?” John asks, slightly confused.

“You should be able to.” Calliope says, albeit with a slight frown. “Rose said so before she…” she cuts herself and turns to Kanaya. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright.” Kanaya says.

“So, I can travel back into The Medium.” John says. “Right. Hold on a second.”

He flickers out of existence in a flash of blue light.

“So… what now?” Roxy asks. “When he comes back, what next?”

“Well, I assume we go back, and-” Calliope starts, but is cut off when John zaps back into existence, panting.

“Okay,” he says between huffs, “Good news, I’m preeeeetty sure we can go back. Bad news…” he pauses to gulp, “There are some weird magic places we need to get past.”

“Uh… what?” Dave asks.

“Well, I couldn’t get back to the Medium, but I could see a few spots that we needed to fuck up rifts in order to bypass the lock.” John says. “Or something.”

“Where?” Calliope asks.

“Anyone have a map?” John asks.

“So, are you going to absorb that thing or what?” Shard asks. “Because you’ve been keeping it in your technically sylladex for the past three hours and I’m surprised you haven’t done anything about it. Usually you would have done something with it by now.”

Shackle frowns at her. “But it’s so beautiful.” he says. “Just a little bit longer.”

“Ok, but you better absorb it in the next three chapters.” Shard says.

“Yes mom.” Shackle grumbles.

“Where were you?” Sharpen asks as he finally pops back into existence from wherever he ran off to.

“Blocking off Paradox Space.” Shard says. “Had to shove Aradia and Sollux out to do it. It’s not foolproof. I think Shatter might have broken us a bit much.”

“He’s not very cautious about these things.” Shadow says, shrugging. “He just does stuff.”

“So, do we have a plan?” Sharpen asks.

“Why are you asking me?” Shard asks.

“I dunno, you’re sort of the de facto leader, aren’t you?” Sharpen asks.

“No I’m not.” Shard says.

“Yes you are.” Shackle says. “You’ve always been our sort of leader, whether accidentally or intentionally. You’re always playing big sister.”

“Because I am your big sister.” Shard says, then adds “Technically.”

“Well, you’re technically in charge, so we think you should make the plan.” Shadow says.

“You want me to make a plan?” Shard asks.

“Yes.” Sharpen says.

“Alright then.” Shard says. “I’ve got a few ideas.”

* * *

“Forrester?” Shade asks as the two of them float between worlds, ever so slowly cracking the glass on the timeline where Shard, Sharpen, Shackle, and Shadow are. John and Terezi are somewhere else, probably screwing around, knowing them. “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” he asks.

“Starting on that again, huh?” Forrester asks.

“I don’t recall asking you anything like that.” Shade says.

“Nah, man, it’s in the body language.” Forrester says. “You shouldn’t think too much about that, it wasn’t your fault.”

“Well, I’m not talking about myself.” Shade says. “I’m asking about you.”

“Well, the implication with your question was that you yourself were pondering the many bad things you had done.” Forrester says. He pauses. “The worst thing I’ve ever done. Hmm.” He sniffs as he pushes away from the bubble that is the timeline, floating backwards slowly as if drifting through space, staring up at the tree-like web of timelines, connected like some kind of nervous system. He follows the ‘branches’ with his eyes, slowly looking back towards the centre and staring at the pulsing light that is the core, and sighs.

“Killing your dad.” he finally says with a grimace. “You know me. You know that I’ve got problems with authority-”

“Forrester, we’ve gone over this.” Shade says. “You can’t keep saying your flaws aloud.”

“Well, I don’t really care.” Forrester says. “That, in itself, is a rule, and authority makes the rules. To break the rule is to go against authority, as my flaw states.”

“That is probably the stupidest thing I have ever heard you say.” Shade says.

“Yeah, you’re right about that one.” Forrester responds sheepishly, scratching his head. “Anyway. Killing your dad. Probably shouldn’t have done that. Sometime in the future, all of UMF will be after me. Probably going to have one hell of a time with that. Maybe the Angel of Death will come after me.”

“Angel of Death?” Shade asks.

“Oh, just…” Forrester trails off. “There were rumours at the time I left that there was some ex-UMF cyborg running around hunting down traitors. No survivors. Brutal slaughters. Entire teams of insurgents dead by the dozens. Some people called it the Angel of Death. Guess we haven’t quite gotten there yet, judging by your confusion.”

“Yeah, that sounds pretty nasty.” Shade says.

“Anyway, it was kind of a bad idea.” Forrester says. “I feel bad about it.”

“I feel bad about it too.” Shade says. “If I knew you would kill him…”

“Yeah, well I didn’t know I’d have to until I got there.” Forrester says. “Besides, Sigma, Sarrus, and Umbra are still kicking.”

“Yeah, but they’re gonna be alone.” Shade says. “I’m worried about UMF in the future.”

“Can’t mean much good.” Forrester says. It almost looks like there’s something more to the story, judging by the look in his eyes, but it vanishes before Shade can get a closer look. “Right then, shall we continue?” he asks.

“Yep.” Shade says.

* * *

Somewhere else in the void between the many timelines of Universe “Five”, Shatter holds the small metal canister containing an extension of The Lady of the Void, listening to her talk.

**You are the only person that has ever worked for me that has been able to get to Universe “Two”. Everyone else lacked the clearance or abilities.**

“How about that.” Shatter says. “Sometimes I forget that I chose to work with you.”

**You chose your fate. You should do well to remember that.**

“Yeah, I will.” Shatter says. “Also, do we have an insurance policy if all this goes south?”

**I will withhold it unless it becomes necessary.**

“Cryptic as ever, Chu’Mana.” Shatter says.

**Call me that again and I will destroy all of your good memories.**

“Ouch.” Shatter says, wincing. “Now there’s a threat. Not kill, or take over, or… whatever.” he sighs and throws his hands up in the air. “Don’t know why you have a problem with the name though. You’re female for one thing, so that lines up. You’re intuitive… you’re private. You’re wise, you’re cryptic, and you know everything. Seems snakish to me. Fits with the name.”

**It is a personal matter. I choose not to take this name.**

“Why do you speak so grammatically?” Shatter asks.

**I simply have chosen to.**

“Suit yourself.” Shatter says. “We should get moving.”

With that, Shatter flickers out of existence, heading for Universe “Four”.

Shard - 0/2 Kills

Shadow - 0/2 Kills

Shackle - 0/2 Kills

Sharpen - 1/2 Kills

Gods - 1/14 Dead

SHATTER PROGRESS LOG - 0/5

Universe “Five”

Universe “Four”

Universe “Three”

Universe “Two”

The Pit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoa nelly. Weirdness.


	5. Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John walks through a museum and Forrester and Shade converse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Foreshadow

John wanders through the large room in the centre of the museum. It’s dead silent. Apparently, he needs to use his retcon powers to close some rift somewhere in this building. It’s empty, since they gave the people in charge of the place a head’s up just to close it for the day for unspecified reasons. He whistles for a moment, breaking the silence for all of 5 seconds, before he goes quiet once more. He ponders where his friends are. Terezi, Kanaya, Sollux, Aradia, and Calliope are back at Rose’s home, and He has one of the rifts, and Jade has another. Dave and Karkat have a third, Jane and Jake are going to deal with a fourth, and Roxy and Dirk are going to take on a fifth. John momentarily reflects on the fact that he has no idea what exactly the rifts will look like, but he feels like it will be obvious, a total ‘know it when you see it’ situation.

It doesn’t take long for John to find the thing he’s looking for. It’s a pulsing sphere of energy just sitting there, hovering in the air in the large and dark room. John steps towards it and stops dead. There’s a man standing in the dark corner of the room, and he doesn’t look like any of the four people trying to kill him and his friends.

“Hello?” he very cautiously asks.

“Hey John.” the man says. “Don’t mind me. I noticed this narrative was controlled by someone I’m on neutral terms with, so I thought I’d pop in and just have a look around.”

“Who are you?” John asks.

“Nobody that you need to be concerned about.” the man says. “I’m not part of the conflict you’re currently in, I’m… an Observer. Let’s put it that way. You can call me Tristan.”

There’s a pause.

“I’m not going to hurt you, John.” Tristan says. “You can close your rift and free the way to Paradox Space all you like. I have no desire to interact with the cosmic chessboard. Not yet, at least.” he smiles, and John hesitantly steps forward, raising his hands and letting blue energy flow from them and stitch the rift closed. Tristan claps. “I take my leave.” he says. “Oh, and by the way, you won’t have to worry about Shadow coming after you. He’s too afraid of me, and I can say I blame him. I’d be afraid of me too.”

John swallows, trying to keep his cool. “Are you here to help us? Why are you here?”

“Well, like I said, I’m an Observer.” Tristan says. “I just thought I’d stop by and look, is all. Run along. I’m going, anyway.”

With that, he seems to melt into the darkness and disappear. John hesitantly steps forwards and runs his hand across the wall that Tristan was just leaning against. After that, his fear gets the better of him, and he retcons himself away.

Shadow watches him go, and curses Tristan under his breath before he vanishes as well.

John reappears in Rose’s house to find practically everyone else clustered around Jane, who seems to be in shock. Jake is nowhere to be seen.

“What happened?” John asks.

“We were on our way out.” Jane says. “But one of them showed up, and Jake…” she pauses to breathe shakily and sniffle. “He got Jake, and I tried to shoot him before he could hurt Jake, but…” she sniffles again. “He-” she chokes out her words, “He used J-” she cuts herself off and begins sobbing. John breathes shakily and looks around at everyone. They all look devastated. Dirk is standing at the balcony, staring out at the afternoon sun and seemingly trying to ignore the pain he’s feeling thanks to Jake’s apparent death.

* * *

Forrester flinches for a second, then jerks backwards from the crack in the timeline’s spherical wall, reeling like he’s been shot and clutches the side of his head, squeezing it like he’s trying to crush it, before gasping for breath.

“Forrester?” Shade asks. “Are you alright? Hey.” He flies up to him and waves a hand in front of his friend’s face. “Forrester.”

“I’m fine.” Forrester says.

“Dude, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Shade says. “You sure you’re alright?”

“Yeah, just thought I saw an old energy signature.” Forrester says. “But that happens a lot, so no biggie.” He shrugs.

“You sure?” Shade asks.

“Yep.” Forrester says. “Fine. Let’s just keep going.” He pauses before asking “Where are John and Terezi?”

“They’re over there.” Shade says, gesturing to the two figures floating in the distance, chasing each other around.

“Right.” Forrester says, nodding. “Right.”

He doesn’t think he’ll tell Shade about what he really just saw. It was more than a ghost of the past. Something was there. He’ll have to tell someone in charge as soon as this is over. But for now, he’s got enough on his plate. He’ll deal with it later. His current problem unfortunately takes priority, seeing that Shatter presumably aims to corrupt The Core of Universe “Five”. And given that the older threat has chosen to be an Observer, they’re going to have to be relegated to something of a secondary priority. For now, the focus is on dealing with Shatter before he ends an entire universe.

Shard - 0/2 Kills

Shadow - 0/2 Kills

Shackle - 1/2 Kills

Sharpen - 1/2 Kills

Gods - 2/14 Dead

SHATTER PROGRESS LOG - 1/5

Universe “Five”

Universe “Four”

Universe “Three”

Universe “Two”

The Pit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tristan's basically just an easter egg, but he might also be important later. Don't forget about him.


	6. Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chrono.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chrono, that Calliope from before, gets her own bit here.

Chrono straightens herself, sensing the new presence immediately.

“If you could allow me a moment…” Chrono says. “I haven’t finished my tea yet.”

“Fine by me.” Shatter says. “They can’t see me, and even if they could, it would take them too long to get down here anyway.”

Chrono turns to face Shatter, who’s leaning against the far wall of the living room. She steps out of the kitchen. “Goodness, you’ve certainly grown some more.”

“In a manner of speaking.” Shatter says. “Funny, I didn’t think you would care about that. Given some of the things I’ve done.”

“”Hmm. I know exactly how things are supposed to play out.” Chrono says. “I’ve always had a sense that something bad would happen with you. So, I didn’t fight it.” She smiles. “I’d ask you to sit down, but I know you’re not going to. I also know that you’re going to get mad and break the pottery jar on the table in two minutes. And we both know how this conversation ends.”

“Yes, we do.” Shatter says. Chrono sits down on the couch, and he goes over to the piano in the corner of the room and plays a few keys, before going back to leaning against the wall.

“So, you’re working for the queen of darkness herself.” Chrono says. “Thinking over your personality and your abilities, I can see why she values you so much.”

“I’m her most valuable asset.” Shatter responds.

“Still have a bit of an ego though.” Chrono says. “And by a bit, I mean a lot. Is the pay good?”

“I-what?” Shatter wonders aloud.

“I’m kidding with you, kiddo.” Chrono says. “The only pay you get is the satisfaction of getting to kill some people. How about that? All that hard work, and nothing to show for it, really. Face it kid, you’re a slave.”

“I am not a slave.” Shatter says, perhaps a bit too quickly. “It’s a mutually beneficial agreement.”

“You can keep calling it that all you want.” Chrono says. She pauses as she hears a beeping noise. “Tea’s ready. Give me a moment.”

Chrono stands up and goes into the kitchen to get her finished tea. “It’s funny.” Chrono says. “I was going to make my tea by hand, but then I found out that there were tea machines.”

“Tea machines.” Shatter parrots.

“Uh-huh.” Chrono says. “So, I just got one of those instead.”

“Last I checked, those are cheaper.” Shatter says. “Not that you ever had to worry about cost.”

“I live in a cabin in the woods in eternal isolation, barely anyone visits.” Chrono says. “I’m self sustaining, and I do enough things on my own, having a machine make tea for me makes some things simpler. That’s why. It’s not about cost.”

“We’re getting off track.” Shatter says. “Talking about… tea.” he scoffs. “You know why I’m here, Chrono, let’s just get to the point.”

“Do I really know why you’re here?” Chrono asks, sitting up. “There are many reasons why you’re here. There’s a portal in my basement. You want to convert me. You want a prophecy from me. And most importantly…” she pauses to take a sip from her tea, “You want to know that you’re going to be in control of your actions. And that  _ she _ won’t use you for this one job, and then toss you aside like trash. Just another pawn.”

“I am not a pawn!” Shatter snarls, and slams his fist onto the pottery jar on the table, smashing it into pieces. “I’m in control. And she has more plans.”

“If you live to see them, that is.” Chrono says.

“Let’s just get to the nitty gritty. I want a prophecy.” Shatter says.

“Well, why don’t I tell you the same thing that I told your brother?” Chrono asks, and then leans back as her eyes glow green with light. “The Lost Heir will return. Two worlds will die, and two oracles will live. The children of God will fight for the future of all worlds. The all seeing eye will be closed. There will be a great dying and a great rebirth. A god will be chained and a god will be sacrificed.” She sits up again and sighs as her eyes return to normal. “That’s all.”

“How ominous.” Shatter says. “Well, I would like to give you my internal monologue on that, but I won’t. That’s not a very good idea, to let that information loose in the narrative. Who am I, Dirk?”

“I assume you’re on your way now?” Chrono asks.

“Yes.” Shatter says.

A few minutes pass, the events that occur in that time beyond the scope of this story’s vision.

Beneath, Shatter steps into the stargate-like portal beneath Chrono’s house and vanishes.

Shard - 0/2 Kills

Shadow - 0/2 Kills

Shackle - 1/2 Kills

Sharpen - 1/2 Kills

Gods - 2/14 Dead

SHATTER PROGRESS LOG - 2/5

Universe “Five”

Universe “Four”

Universe “Three”

Universe “Two”

The Pit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What happened to Chrono ~ooo~


	7. Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chaos will now ensue. Remember the Escher-verse guys? Yep.

Everyone left has basically chosen to shack up in Rose’s mountain house at this point. They’re going to go back to Paradox Space, but they’re taking some time first to handle their grief. John is currently slouched on the couch, staring at the ceiling. Jane is next to him, silently staring at the currently powered off TV. Dave and Karkat are upstairs, probably spooning on the guest bed or something. Jade is in the dining room nearby with Roxy and Calliope, and Dirk is apparently in the laundry room feeling sorry for himself, which John can’t say he blames Dirk for. Kanaya and Terezi are in Kanaya’s room, talking about something that John can’t hear from here, Sollux is in the kitchen leaning against the screen door frame, and Aradia is in the process of drinking an entire jug of milk in a single swig because, as she said before she started chugging, “I was thirsty”. As she drinks, she goes over to the screen door and stares outside as Sollux backs up behind her. She momentarily lowers the milk jug and squints.

“What the-”

There’s a sound like a knife cutting meat, and then there’s a spear going straight through Aradia’s left lung and jamming its tip perfectly through Sollux’s sternum to pierce his heart. He gasps and grabs at the spear, before the pain seems to register and he makes a small scream before he slips off the point and falls to the ground, a flow of golden blood following after him. Aradia shakes and gasps for a moment as well, before turning around and laughing to herself, a sound which devolves into a gurgle right before she falls to the ground on her side and quietly gasps for breath. Everyone else stares, slack jawed, right before a person that looks just like John’s Dad slides the screen door open and steps inside.

“D…” John half-whispers, rather afraid. “Dad?”

John’s Dad does not respond. He pulls the spear out of Aradia’s chest, and she rolls onto her back, gasping for air. He raises the spear, but is immediately vaporized by a dying Sollux, who crawls over to Aradia and takes her bloody hand as the life drains out of him and stains the carpet beneath him a yellow-ish colour. John stares in horror. Immediately after that, several more look-alikes step inside through the open door. These ones look like the Summoner, Psiioniic, the Signless, the Disciple, the Dolorosa, Redglare, Mindfang, and Executor Darkleer. By now, everyone else has ended up downstairs and are staring at the eight newcomers, who survey their ten remaining targets, and resolve to go for the eight people that are not John and Jane, aka Dave, Jade, Roxy, Dirk, Karkat, Kanaya, Terezi, and Calliope. The Signless gets pushed back and goes for John and Jane as a result.

“What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck, WHAT THE FUCK!” Karkat can be heard shouting as Signless slams his hand onto John’s face and grips his fingers into his flesh. John grabs his arm and forces the troll off of him, whereupon Jane grabs his head and kicks him in the back. Surprisingly, his head rips off and his body limply tumbles to the ground.

“What the…?” John wonders aloud in confusion as Jane drops the head in surprise at the fact that the head came off so easily. At that moment, Mindfang’s head smacks into the wall next to them, and her body falls to the floor nearby. With those ancestors taken care of, Karkat runs over to Sollux and takes his hand, begging him to please stay awake. John watches awestruck as the next wave of doubles comes, smashing in through the windows and going after everyone. Jane gets grabbed from behind by two of herself, and Karkat gets thrown against the wall by a Gamzee. Everyone else contends with what looks like Mituna, Kankri, Latula, and Cronus. John goes in to help Jane and shoves one of the doubles away, knocking its head off with his hammer. The double, however, does not stop, and instead slams its palm into his nose, breaking it and spilling blood all over his shirt. As he struggles with her, Karkat gasps for breath as Gamzee’s double crushes his windpipe slowly. Dave screams something unintelligible and launches himself towards them, taking off Cronus’ forearm as he runs Gamzee through with his sword, before whipping his head off and spraying blood all over him and Karkat.

“I got you man.” Dave half-yells at Karkat over the sounds of fighting right before a blast from a Sollux double sends Karkat backwards into the corner, slumping to the floor unconscious, and Dave is sent flying backwards where he bowls Dirk over as well. Roxy’s double comes in from the front door and grabs Roxy by the throat, pulling her back towards the door. Calliope screams in panic, and runs after the two of them. John, meanwhile, manages to wrench Jane clone 1’s arm off and hit her in the stomach with it, downing her to the ground where he can stomp her. As he does, Sollux’s double crushes this universe’s version of himself’s neck beneath his foot and then blasts John off of the already dead Jane double, sending him crashing into the other two Jane Crockers and sending all three of them smashing through the wall to the outside. Sollux’s double turns his attention back towards the main group of fighters. By now, Mituna, Kankri, and Cronus are down, but Latula is busy beating Terezi to a pulp, only stopped by Kanaya finally getting her hands free to whip out her chainsaw and brutalize the fake. Even so, the second Sollux blasts Kanaya backwards so that she knocks Calliope over, forcing the cherub to watch as the real Roxy gets her femoral arteries nicked open. Roxy gasps and goes limp in shock.

Calliope wails as everyone else struggles. Sollux’s double stares around and does a quick headcount. John and Jane are outside, Dave and Dirk are just getting up, Jade seems to be tussling with a newly arrived double of herself who seems to have come from upstairs, Roxy is being held at knifepoint, slowly bleeding out, Kanaya is on the ground on top of Calliope, Terezi is recovering from being beaten up, and Karkat has gotten up at just the right time to catch Sollux’s double unaware and cut his throat open. Even so, immediately after he does it he stares at the blood on his hands in shock. Roxy’s double prepares to cut her real self’s throat as Calliope watches helplessly, but Jade kicks away her double and teleports behind the two Lalondes to snap the double’s neck, also tearing it off her body in the process. At the same time, Dave and Dirk pull a fraymotif and kill Jade’s double. John and Jane fly back inside the house, having dispatched their threat, but the next wave comes all the same.

The next wave all resemble human forms of sprites, with two Nannas along with Gcatavros, Jasprose, Arquius, and Davepeta. They zap around the house, splitting everyone apart. Jade gets her arm slashed up as Davepeta flies by her, claws outstretched. Jasprose takes a chunk out of Jane’s shoulder with only her teeth. John gets choked by one of the Nannas, who stares into his eyes coldly and mercilessly. Dirk manages to spear the other semi-human Nannasprite and shove them out of the house, but Arquius seems to have broken one of his arms, and he’s already looking pretty tired. John, in a fit of panic, barely thinking, hits Nanna with a miniature tornado that sends her flying into the wall, and then hits her several times with his hammer before stumbling back in shock. Calliope crawls over to Roxy and takes her hand, telling her to just hold on, she’ll be fine. Terezi struggles to her feet and manages to run Arquiusprite through with her cane swords before he chokes Dave to death, but Davepeta immediately bowls her over and pins Dave to the wall. That finally snaps Karkat out of his stupor, and he starts to run over, shouting his boyfriend's name, but Davepeta uses some sprite power to stop him in his tracks and then slam him into the wall. Jade is too busy getting clawed all to hell by Jasprose, but Kanaya manages to chainsaw her attacker in half. Gcatavros goes for Roxy and Calliope, but Jane has run past everyone else, and spears the human sprite against the floor.

“DAVE!” Karkat shouts in a panic as a double of Dave steps inside and starts attacking Karkat, who does not look like he wants to fight someone who looks just like the man he loves, rather understandably of course.

“Karkat!” Dave shouts back as Davepeta pins him to the wall by running him right through his left shoulder with one of their claw gloves.

More doubles stream in, and as Dirk runs over to try and help Karkat, a new Aradia telekinetically stops him in his tracks, then throws him into the ceiling. Kanaya screams a battle cry as Porrim, Aranea, and Horuss step in as well, charging at them to try and help Karkat, but Aradia catches her too and slams her against the wall with the right amount of force to knock her out cold.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” John shouts as he sprints forwards and uppercuts Aradia with his hammer, sending her head flying over to the still open fridge (the real Aradia never closed it), where it lands inside with a  _ splat _ . Horuss disengages from the rest of them and runs over to John, punching him in the face and sending him backwards. Then he tackles him back outside through the hole in the wall. In a panic, Jade looks around as she tries to ignore her many wounds and help the others. John just got tackled outside, Dave is pinned by Davepeta, she’s clawed to hell, Jane was fine a moment ago, but now Porrim is getting close to chainsaw-ing her to death, Roxy is bleeding to death slowly and still in shock from it, Dirk is somewhere up above, Karkat can barely hold his own, Kanaya is out cold, Terezi is fighting Aranea and not doing a very good job at it, and Calliope is just trying to keep Roxy awake.

“Fuck, fuck, we’re gonna die in here, aren’t we!?” Karkat shouts as his shoulder gets sliced open. “Killed by all these fucking imitations!”

“Karkat, be chill, we can do this!” Dave shouts, not sounding convinced at all that they can do this, and more like the blood loss is really getting to him and that they may actually be screwed.

Jade is angry, she’s scared, and now she’s screaming, which apparently synced with her desire to destroy all these threats, as green energy courses out from her and spreads through the room, hitting all of the imitations. Horuss, Davepeta, Porrim, Aranea, and Dave have been reduced to nothing but dust on the wind by the time Jade has stopped screaming.

“Holy shit, Jade.” Dave says. “That was pretty cool.”

“Yeah, I guess it was.” Jade says.

The awesomeness of the moment is undermined by the mood-breaker (as if the mood wasn’t broken already) of Dirk smashing back through the ceiling just as John comes back inside.

“Just gonna take a short rest.” Dirk mutters, and then closes his eyes.

“Dirk?” John asks, pressing his fingers to Dirk’s neck. “He’s still alive, but he’s out.”

With the flow of imitations seemingly having stopped, everyone helps everyone else up. Calliope helps Roxy to her feet. Dave runs over and gives Karkat a quick hug. Jade dusts herself off as Jane and Terezi straighten themselves out. John takes a shaky breath as he stares across the grisly scene in the several rooms that have now basically been turned into one room thanks to all the inner wall destruction.

“They’ve stopped.” John wonders aloud. “Why?”

“Because of this.” Shackle says as he steps inside out of fucking nowhere, and then throws a spear effortlessly. Calliope evaluates the possibilities in a split second and doesn’t hesitate to step in front of Roxy. Roxy gasps as she looks down and sees that the point has stopped just short of her heart, only thanks to Calliope, who gasps slightly.

“Oh.” she quietly whispers as she realizes that the spear has cut off her finger with the ring of life as well. Shackle telekinetically pulls the spear out of her and she falls backwards into Roxy’s arms, slowly starting to fade away. As for the ring, it flickers like an image on a broken tv screen and disappears, breaking apart and dissipating.

“We picked all those doubles up from Escher-verse or whatever.” Shackle says, but nobody’s really listening. Not that he cares. Or has been allowed to care, for that matter. Even if he could anymore, he wouldn’t anyway. “They make good drones. Even if they fall apart pretty easily.” Roxy’s not listening anymore, all feeling within her has been replaced with a cold emptiness that continues to spread throughout her as she cradles her dying friend.

“Roxy…” Calliope manages to get out even as she fades away. “Don’t let this… ch-” she’s cut off as she coughs up blood. “Ch…” she doesn’t get to finish the word, and then she’s gone. Roxy doesn’t react at first. She slowly stands up as everything goes strangely dead silent. She’s voiding out all of the sound now. Shackle tenses as he realizes what’s happening.

“Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” he silently says right before Roxy flips from normal to grimdark and slams into him, sending them crashing through the open doorway and allowing normal volume to return. Immediately afterwards, doubles of John, Rose, Dirk, Jake, Karka, Kanaya, Terezi, Vriska, Damara, Rufioh, Meulin, Kurloz, Meenah, and some weird human-troll hybrid Dirk lookalike stream in.

“Give us a fucking break!” Terezi shouts.

“We’re gonna die, fuck, we’re gonna die!” Karkat shouts.

“Hold on man, we’re making it so far.” Dave says as coolly as he can.

Immediately after that, Jane gets her head smashed between the wall and John’s double’s hammer, knocking her unconscious and causing her to slide to the floor.

“Ok, that’s a problem, but we can still do this right?” Dave asks, starting to lose it.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Karkat shouts as he’s forced to take Kanaya’s double’s head off with his sickles. “I don’t think I can take much more of this, Dave!”

“Jade, could you give us a hand back here please?” Dave asks in an attempted casual voice, although his tone portrays his panic. Jade’s response is a yell of some kind, as she is currently fending off a hope-boosted Jake English, who is starting to destroy what’s left of the house.

“Shit!” John shouts in a panic as Dirk’s double cuts a large gash on the back of his hand. He just manages to swing his hammer down and splat its head off, whereupon he’s knocked backwards by a telekinetic attack from Damara, slamming into Terezi and sending them both flying until they crash into some small valley, more of a glorified ditch.

“Get off me.” Terezi hisses at John, who struggles to his feet. Looking up in the sky, he can see Shackle and Roxy fighting, enveloped in a cloud of darkness. Sharpen appears out of thin air and gives a little wave to John.

“Hey-o.” Sharpen says. “It’s me. The one who killed Rose. I just need one more casualty, and then I can get my end of things over with.” He then draws a sword and an axe, one in each hand. John brandishes his hammer once again, and Terezi pulls out both of her cane swords. They’re both bloody and beaten, but they’ve got no choice to keep going. “You know, you could retcon your way out of this. But you haven’t. I wonder why.”

“What is it with villains and their need to never shut up?” Terezi snarls out.

“Frankly, I dunno, I just went with this.” Sharpen says, shrugging. “Anyway, let’s dance.”

Terezi shoots forwards first, and immediately gets blasted back into the far ‘wall’ of the large pit that they’re in. “No, no, I don’t want to play with you.” Sharpen says. “It is strange though, doing… this. Killing you. What, with you being my father’s alternate self.”

“Um.” John says, confused. “What?”

“Enough details, like I said, let’s dance.” Sharpen says, and then flies at John, who parries his attacks as best he can, panic setting in as Sharpen opens more and more cuts all over his body, until John is a bloody mess, drenched in red, barely standing up. Behind him, Terezi starts to stand up, and Sharpen throws the axe towards her as soon as he has an opening. John instinctively brings up a wall of wind to stop it dead in his tracks, but barely blocks Sharpen’s sword swing. He manages to hit Sharpen with his hammer and force him backwards to the ground, but he’s forced to spin around when Terezi shouts his name, knocking the axe flying towards him aside with his hammer. Of course, if he had thought this through, he would have dodged to the side, because that was the perfect opening for Sharpen to throw his sword and skewer John through the back.

He flinches.

Looking down, he finally seems to register the blade poking out of his chest after a good twenty seconds of little to no reaction.

“Ok.” he chokes out. “Right.”

He collapses to his knees when Sharpen finally pulls the sword out of him. He coughs up blood, and then faceplants. “And on that note,” Sharpen says, “I take my leave. Cheerio.” He disappears in a flash of light, and Terezi crawls over to John as he rolls onto his back and stares up at the sky.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck…” John gasps out.

“Hold on, hold on, hold on.” Terezi says as she presses her hands over his wound, trying in vain to stop the blood flow. At around the same time, Dave, Jade, Jane, Dirk, Karkat, and Kanaya run or fly into the ditch and surround the pair.

“John…” Dave whispers. “No, no, no, no, no, no…”

“Sorry, Dave.” John manages to choke out.

“Bro, just… hold on.” Dave says. “Hang on, it’ll be alright.”

John opens his mouth to say something more, but is interrupted by the bright green flash of light from above, and everyone turns to see Shackle flare with green energy. Roxy is thrown backwards from the sheer force of the Green Sun’s absorption and resulting shockwave, which knocks everyone off their feet. Roxy lands near them and Shackle laughs as the full power of the Green Sun goes through him. He has more than just the power of a single first guardian. He has the might of two universes worth of power. While he’s busy laughing, John scans the faces of his eight remaining friends, and then remembers their power.

“You’re gonna hate me for this.” John says. “Sorry, guys.”

Then, he retcon zaps them away back into Paradox Space.

“Beat these motherfuckers for me.” John whispers.

A few seconds later, Shackle decides to test out the borrowed powers of the Green Sun, the kind of power he’s always wanted to test out. So, he sends out a massive wave of gamma radiation, and a moment later, Earth C has ceased to exist. Universe C falls silent.

Shard - 2/2 Kills

Shadow - 0/2 Kills

Shackle - 2/2 Kills

Sharpen - 2/2 Kills

Gods - 6/14 Dead

SHATTER PROGRESS LOG - 2/5

Universe “Five”

Universe “Four”

Universe “Three”

Universe “Two”

The Pit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This entire segment is a reference to an old scrapped project of mine.


	8. Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And this is the part where I go absolutely crazy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been waiting to write this fight down for two years.

Shatter steps into the dark pit of a world that is Universe “Three”. This one is a bit strange in terms of accessibility, he thinks. Because anyone with the right administrative access can get to this one regardless of where they are, but anyone who doesn’t have that access can only get here using a portal in Universe “Four”. Shatter’s access was cut off as soon as he went rogue, so he’s had to play it by ear. The defence force for Universe “Three” isn’t fairly substantial, they’re more here to make sure that nobody turns off the machine keeping The Void contained, the thing that could collapse the World Tree if it got out. Shatter decides to rest for a moment just to admire the strange beauty of the dark sky above. He smirks to himself at the thought of how much fun he could have if he were to let The Void loose, but that’s a bad idea for a variety of reasons, considering that it may not know that he’s on its side, it could fuck up his entire plan, and it would also alert everyone to where he is, and given that he’s trying to keep a low profile, that is definitely not something he wants to do. Regardless, the time for sitting around and doing nothing is over. He’s got a job to do, and he intends to see it through to the bitter end. He disappears into the space between worlds, easily stepping out of Universe “Three” and heading for Universe “Two”.

* * *

“And she’s dead.” Libra says as soon as her and Sophia walk into Chrono’s empty cabin. “Don’t know why you wanted to check once she disappeared.”

“It just felt wrong.” Sophia says. “It wasn’t just disappearing. There was something else.”

“Well, now we’re here.” Libra says. “And there’s nothing here. She’s not here, and whatever that something else was is not here either. Why’d you get me into this?”

“I thought I saw something.” Sophia says. “A ghost of the past.”

“Big deal.” Libra says, waving her hands in the air for dramatic effect.

“I thought I saw-” Sophia starts to say, but bites her lip. “Nicole, can we talk?” she asks.

Libra pauses. “Damn, can’t believe that you thought of that. Nicole. I like that.”

“I know you’ve been going through some things.” Sophia says. “That little bit of guilt bestowed upon you has been eating away at you, and now you’re feeling everything you’ve done. And I’ve been watching you, and I think it may actually be making you a better person.”

“Yeah, well it hurts.” Nicole says. “And yes, I will admit that it is making me better.”

“And you admitted that.” Sophia says. “How about that?”

“What?” Nicole asks. “What about me admitting that?” she half-snarls.

“You’re finally willing to confide in me.” Sophia says softly. “You trust me.”

“No I don’t.” Nicole says. “I’ve never trusted you.”

“You never trusted me before.” Sophia says. “But you trust me more now.”

Nicole goes silent for some time, before finally speaking again. “I really hate you sometimes, brother. But maybe I do trust you.” she says. She scrunches her face. “It is still weird calling you brother when we’re both in female bodies.”

“I thought you didn’t have a problem with that.” Sophia says.

“I don’t.” Nicole says. “But I do wish I could be a dragon. Gender is of no concern to me.”

“Never seemed to bother you.” Sophia says.

“The reason for it does, though.” Nicole growls. “Plotline convenience. We never had to worry about that, did we?”

“Not until we got into this.” Sophia says. “Pretty easy for me to join.”

“Yes, well you got a second life.” Nicole snarls. “I just got my power taken away.”

“Lucky you.” Sophia says. “Believe it or not, you may actually be a better person when you  _ don’t _ have all the power.”

“How about that.” Nicole says. “I do wonder what he did with the stones, though.”

“Last I checked, they’re still in a giant laser cannon orbiting Jupiter.” Sophia says.

“Surprised that apparently we just leave it there.” Nicole says. “Stones and all.”

“Yeah well, The Administrator wants things to turn out a specific way.” Sophia says.

“I’m sick of him telling us what to do.” Nicole mutters.

“Yeah, well. At least he gave you all the sadistic things.” Sophia says.

“There is that.” Nicole responds, albeit with a sigh.

“Anyway, shall we get going?” Sophia asks.

“Might as well.” Nicole says. “We’ve got to catch up to Forrester.”

With that, the two of them disappear, leaving Chrono’s cabin to rot.

* * *

“I feel a bit funny with this thing inside me.” Shackle says, pointing at the pulsing green light in his chest. “Odd. It tickles, but also it stings.”

“It’s not a problem, right?” Shard asks.

“No, not a problem.” Shackle says.

“Can we focus on the more present problem concerning the surviving gods of Earth C?” Shadow says. “I still need to get my two kills in.”

“Kind of surprised you haven’t.” Sharpen says.

“Yeah, well I haven’t had a lot of opportunities.” Shadow says.

“Why don’t you catch up to us?” Sharpen says. “We can go ahead.”

“Mmhm, I was thi-” Shadow starts to say, but is cut off.

“No.” Shard says. “We stick together. We’re family, and we don’t leave anyone behind.”

“I was just going to say I would be fine with staying.” Shadow says.

“Oh.” Shard says. “So, you wouldn’t be opposed to us leaving you behind, then?”

“Nah.” Shadow says, shrugging. “You guys can go on.”

“Well, actually, I want to stay a little longer.” Shackle says.

“What? Why?” Shard asks.

“I dunno, I feel like this thing will glitch away if I leave.” Shackle says. “I want to hang onto it for a little bit longer.”

“Well, in that case, I’m staying with you.” Shard says. “I don’t trust you to be alone with that thing. Who knows what could happen.”

“What, so everyone but me is staying?” Sharpen asks.

“No, we’re all staying.” Shard says. “I’m not letting  _ you _ out of my sight.”

“Great.” Sharpen says.

“Now, let’s go find them.” Shadow says. “I’ll get my two kills in, then we can get out.”

* * *

“This is taking too long.” Shade says.

“It’s only been a couple of hours.” Forrester says.

“Too long.” Shade says. “You know about the time dilation in these timelines. They could have already decimated everything.”

“Destroyed.” Forrester says. “Decimate means to remove one in every ten.”

“Well, you can use it to say destroy now too.” Shade says.

“Huh.” Forrester says. “How ‘bout that. Anyway, I know they could already be on their way, given how slow the signals can be, but as far as we know at this moment, they’re still there. Just calm down, Shade. We can do this.”

“Sorry, I just…” Shade groans. “I don’t like thinking about what they could be doing to the people in those worlds. It’ll be just like what Shatter did last time, I reckon.”

“Well, that is a valid reason.” Forrester says. “But not much we can do about it.” Forrester says, shrugging. “It’s taking a while. So what? We’re getting there.”

“Yeah.” Shade says. “Good point. We’ll get there either way. And we can fix it.”

“That’s the spirit, man.” Forrester says. “We can do this.”

“Right.” Shade says.

* * *

“Getting some pretty strange signals from Five.” John Harley says as he sits at his desk and stares at a trio of monitors, analyzing the ongoing situation across the apparent 2,152,025 timelines. A rather odd number, he thinks, but he didn’t organize Universe “Five”.

“Yeah, well, the kids are really stirring the pot.” Ter3zi says, shrugging. “They’re good at that.”

“I can’t believe that this is happening.” John says. “This could be quite the crisis.”

“Yeah, well.” Ter3zi says. “Things have to happen a certain way. This is how it goes.”

“And we don’t get to know how it ends.” John says. “Great.”

“Oh well.” Ter3zi says. “Sorry. Can’t mess this up.”

“Well, if it helps us avoid imminent doom, then that’s good.” John says. “Besides, I’d frankly rather not know who has to die when. Not very comforting. I mean… I lost Jade five years ago, can’t lose Jane or Jake. Or Gamzee, I guess, even if he does weird me out a little.”

“What, because the british accent seems a tad off for him?” Ter3zi says.

“Yeah, that’s part of it.” John says. “Still, he’s not half bad.”

“He’s kind of clingy.” Ter3zi says.

“Course he’s clingy, he lost his whole family.” John says.

“I did too.” Ter3zi says, and John tenses.

“Sorry.” John says.

“Eh.” Ter3zi shrugs. “I’m over it. But it hasn’t happened yet.”

“Huh.” John says.

* * *

Dave, Jade, Jane, Roxy, Dirk, Karkat, Kanaya, and Terezi drift through Paradox Space, many things on their minds. They’ve lost their homes, their lives, their friends. And now they’re back in The Medium again, and they’ve found nothing. They’re all feeling terrible.

Dave is sticking close to Karkat, ignoring the ache in his chest.

Jade is feeling more alone than she’s ever felt.

Jane, having lost everything she’s worked for, doesn’t see anywhere to go from here.

Roxy has voided away the injuries on her arteries, but she feels numb.

Dirk is trying to keep his cool, but he feels destroyed inside.

Karkat is mainly feeling very very afraid.

Kanaya is out of it, her thoughts constantly drifting to her dead wife.

Terezi is feeling alone with no Vriska to keep her spirits up and no John for her to pester.

“Do you think we could do it again?” Roxy asks at some point, her skin still dark.

“Do what again?” Dave asks.

“Try and redo SBURB.” Roxy says. “Maybe we could find some loophole, some exploit, something, and we could bring them back.”

“How?” Jade asks. “It’s over. They’re dead.”

“Well, Dave, you can time travel, can’t you?” Roxy asks.

“I tried that before.” Dave says, shaking his head. “It didn’t work.”

“Well, can’t we…?” Roxy starts, but trails off, clearly uncertain. They’ve got no retcon powers, which would have been their best bet before, and now they’re stranded. Thinking back, she’s surprised they didn’t try to retcon Rose’s death in the first place, but it’s too late now  **and besides, they were mentally blocked from thinking about that anyway.**

**Regardless, Terezi’s the first one who notices that** something is off.

“Now what is that?” she hesitantly wonders aloud as she turns. “I think we have a problem.”

Everyone else turns to see Shadow heading towards them, Shard and Sharpen right behind him, and Shackle somewhere behind them, pulsing with green light.

“Oh, fuck.” Dave says, right before Shackle fires a sonic shockwave of energy that immediately scatters them throughout the Medium and sends his three siblings reeling.

“What the hell’d you do that for?” Sharpen asks.

“Well, I just wanted to help.” Shackle says. “Now they’re scattered, that should make things much easier for you.”

“He does have a point, you know.” Shadow says.

“Whatever, let’s just help Shadow get his two kills in.” Shard says.

“Uh oh.” Shackle says, right before Roxy flies up from one of the planets and slams into him, darkness and emerald flames trailing behind them.

“Great.” Shard says. “I’ll keep the rest of them distracted.”

“Thanks, Shard.” Shadow says. “Sharpen, you gonna do anything?”

“Guess I can give you a hand.” Sharpen says.

Shadow scans the planets and does a quick headcount. Kanaya is stuck on a LOLAR that has been darkened by Roxy and Shackle now fighting just above it, Dave and Jade are on LOWAS, and Jane, Dirk, Karkat, and Terezi have ended up on LOFAF. He decides to head for LOWAS, since he’d rather not get in the way of Shackle and Roxy given the destruction they seem to be causing, and he’ll pick the (slightly) easier prey of Dave and Jade because there’s two of them and he can take both of them.

Shard stands back and watches as Shackle and Roxy throw all sorts of attacks at one another, although Shackle seems largely unaffected, mostly blocking her attacks and sending out bursts of energy that seem to hurt her pretty bad, before going back to blocking. Roxy, on the other hand, is screaming in pure fury and keeps hurling attacks of eldritch darkness that would easily destroy anyone else, although Shackle seems undeterred. If anything, he looks a bit peaky. But otherwise, he is holding his own just fine. Shadow, meanwhile, is fighting with Dave and Jade, while Sharpen seems to be exercising those newfound sadistic tendencies of his to go after Jane, Dirk, Karkat, and Terezi. On one hand, she would tell him to stop wasting time and energy, but she also doesn’t really care. Plus, he is keeping them occupied so Shadow can do his thing. She winces for a moment as Shackle flares with energy that washes over her. It feels… odd. He definitely isn’t looking too good.

“Shackle, you alright?” Shard half-shouts.

“Yeah?” Shackle says. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You just don’t look too good.” Shard responds.

“I’m fine.” Shackle says.

“Just take it easy, alright?” Shard asks.

“I will!” Shackle says with great enthusiasm.

With that, Shard turns her attention to Shadow, who’s in the middle of decking Jade, who is trying and failing to fight back with the first guardian powers she apparently still has control over, and he also seems to be telekinetically restraining Dave, preventing him from helping.

“Working out alright over there?” Shard asks.

“Yep, it’s fine!” Shadow shouts back.

“Good. Sharpen?” Shard asks.

“Goddamnit, piece of shit!” Sharpen shouts in response, referring to the sword he stole from Dirk, which he appears to have broken in half over his own knee, not without some minor pain in response thanks to the impact. “I’m fine!” he shouts before she can say anything else.

“Right.” Shard mutters. She winces when there’s a bright flash of light near her. Turning to its source, she sees that Shackle definitely does not look as good as he said he was feeling. He’s shouting something as the green light in his chest seems to now be aggressively spreading through his body. “Oh, shit.” Shard hisses as she realizes what’s happening. “Shackle, hold on!”

“Fuck, fuck!” Shackle shouts. “Shard, help!”

A burst of energy sends Roxy flying back, but Shard weathers the storm as she flies towards him. In truth, she doesn’t have a plan, even as she tries to formulate one. “Shackle, just hang on. Sharpen, Shadow, I need a hand here!”

Sharpen disengages from what he’s doing, but Shadow barely pays attention.

“Shard, I can’t hold it!” Shackle shouts.

“Just hold on!” Shard shouts as she gets close. “Can you warp away, do something?”

“I can’t, I’m fucking anchored!” Shackle shouts in a blind panic. “Help!”

“I…” Shard is already crying when she turns away and shouts “Sharpen, Shadow, we’ve got to get the  _ fuck _ out of here!”

With that, Shard disappears in a flash of light.

Four seconds later, Shackle explodes in a viridescent conflagration of emerald green fire.

Everyone flinches and stops fighting as they see the flash of light as bright as a thousand suns, and then a second later they all cover their ears as the impossibly loud sound sonic boom cracks and echoes through all of Paradox Space. Sharpen stares in horror at the massive rapidly expanding explosion as he watches Shackle’s coding break apart string by string and fade away. That doesn’t make any sense, he thinks. It shouldn’t break apart that easily. The Green Sun exploding within him should damage him, but it definitely shouldn’t kill him. Maybe it’s because Shackle, just like Shard, Sharpen, and Shadow, is a bit of a defect, even after the rewiring of their code to try and fix them. Sharpen doesn’t have much time to dwell on it, so he warps away as well. Shadow takes advantage of Jade losing her first guardian powers on the spot and stabs her in the chest, but elects to teleport away out of fear, leaving Dave behind. Released from Shadow’s telekinetic grip, Dave runs over to Jade, but she’s already dead by the time he reaches her. So, he turns his gaze to LOFAF and flies over to it, searching for Karkat, who nobody else seems to have grabbed.

“Karkat!” Dave shouts, straining to be heard over the sound of the ever-expanding explosion,

“Dave!” Karkat shouts back in a panic, unsure what to do as the explosion gets closer and closer. “Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck!” he screams.

By the time Dave reaches him, the emerald green shockwave is already bearing down on them. By then, they both know the same thing; there’s no way in hell they’re going to make it out of the way in time. So, Dave wraps his boyfriend in a hug and whispers, “I love you.” Right before the shockwave smashes into LOFAF, annihilating it and disintegrating both of them.

Dirk, Jane, and Terezi are lucky enough to get beyond the blast radius right before the explosion dissipates, and Roxy and Kanaya manage to survive through sheer void powers alone. However, even those aren’t enough to protect them from the knife-like shards of emerald fire that streak through the air as soon as the initial blast has faded, slashing through space. They tear through Roxy’s void barrier, striking her beneath the right lung, beneath her heart, and in her stomach. She gasps and goes limp. A fourth one punches through Kanaya’s liver. Blood bubbles through the blackness as Paradox Space, reduced to a population of naught but five, falls completely and utterly silent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> null


	9. Nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aftermath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We have reached chapter nein. Bad joke. I have no idea what to write here.

Three physical programs drift through the void between worlds.

“I killed him.” Shard quietly says. “I made him absorb that thing.”

“It’s not your fault.” Shadow says.

“Yeah, it is.” Shard says.

“No it’s not.” Shadow responds. “The only reason Shackle died was because his systems were weakened, and that’s not your fault.”

“I know.” Shard sighs. “But it still feels like it’s my fault.”

“Everything happens a certain way.” Sharpen says. “It’s supposed to happen a certain way. His death was predetermined.”

“I don’t think you’re helping, Sharpen.” Shadow says, scowling.

“You’re right. I’m not.” Sharpen says. “And I’m sure you want to say that we’re wasting time, but the truth is, you’re holding us back.”

“What do you mean by that?” Shadow asks.

“Shard got Aradia and Sollux, I got Rose and John.” Sharpen says. “You only got Jade.”

“So?” Shadow asks.

“You need to get that last kill of yours in.” Sharpen says. “I’ll deal with Shard, you just go and finish them off.”

“You really think that’s a good idea?” Shadow asks.

“It’ll be alright.” Sharpen says. “You  _ can _ handle yourself, right?”   
“Yes, I can.” Shadow says. “I’ll be fine.”

“Well, if things get hairy, send a signal of some kind, would you?” Sharpen asks.

“Yeah.” Shadow says, and then flies into the practically empty Act 7 timeline.

* * *

Shatter steps into Universe “Two” and wastes no time in using some of his powers to warp reality and instantly finds himself standing at the edge of a pit that goes down, down, and down into the darkness. Pitch black darkness. Who knows who put it there, or why, but it’s been there for as long as Universe “Two” can remember. He cracks his neck and takes a long deep breath, before he hefts the canister and steps into the pit, gliding down through the darkness.

Whatever he finds down there is beyond the gaze of this story.

One thing that’s for certain is that he comes back out without a canister, The Lady of the Void has taken her place at the bottom of The Pit, the location of her physical form unknown to all in the multiverse except Shatter. With his task complete, he shifts away from Universe “Two”.

* * *

Jane, Dirk, and Terezi don’t have anywhere to go. It takes them hours to find anything that wasn’t destroyed by the explosion, or shattered by the sheer force of the shockwave. Eventually, they stumble upon an intact dream bubble, drifting through the void. It’s a memory of a beach of some kind, the sky a blood reddish colour as the sun sets. There are some huts around, so they go inside and just sit down and let silence settle. None of them say a word. They feel empty. Devastated. The only thing they really do is check weapons. Dirk has his katana, Terezi has her caneswords, and Jane has her trident as well as a sniper rifle, which she places in the corner. And from there, it doesn’t take long for Terezi to sense something is off. She stands, and the rest of them instinctively stand to their feet, already sensing that she can sense the danger. They stand back from the doorway and back further into the room as Shadow steps inside, holding an axe of sorts.

“I’m really sorry about this.” Shadow says. “I just need one kill.”

With that, he shoots forwards, axe raised. It clangs on Terezi’s sword, and he knocks her backwards with an invisible shockwave, her caneswords dropping to the ground. With a swing, he sends Jane’s trident flying from her hands, whereupon he shoves her into Dirk and crashes both of them into the wall, the shock causing Dirk to let go of his katana. With all three of them disarmed, he doesn’t hesitate to swing at Jane, who rolls to the side to avoid the attack, unintentionally exposing Dirk to the blade. He brings up his arm and gets a gash from his elbow to his hand for his troubles. Shadow is about to slash him again, but Terezi crashes into him and sends him sprawling. Shadow snarls and sends her flying with a sonic wave of energy that also knocks Dirk back down. Jane struggles to her feet and stabs at him with her trident, but he tears it from her hands and swings his axe, ripping a hole in her chest. She gasps, and then crumples.

_ There it is _ Shadow thinks.  _ Go, just go. _

At the same time, he has to stay and make sure that she really  _ does _ die. She could probably try and heal herself. He struggles with his own thought process, and then Dirk swings his katana. Shadow ducks, then shoots up and presses the axe into Dirk’s chest, pushing through his sternum and crushing his heart. Dirk gasps as the air is forced out of his lungs, and then slumps to the floor.

_ Get out _ Shadow thinks.  _ That’s it. That’s my second kill. _

Then, of course, the bullet goes through his shoulder.

Shadow hisses as he spins around and throws his axe through the air, whereupon it buries itself in Terezi’s left shoulder, instantly making her arm unusable. She drops Jane’s sniper rifle as a result, and he kicks Dirk’s katana upwards to his hand, catching it and hurrying towards her, foolishly acting out of anger. He stabs forwards at Terezi, but Jane ends up jumping up and getting the sword between her eyes, which quite obviously kills her immediately. Terezi uses the advantage to grab her canesword from where it lies dropped on the ground and run Shadow through with it. He doesn’t feel an ounce of pain, but the effect that ripples through him is enough to stop him in his tracks. She takes advantage of the moment to shove him over. After that, she struggles to her feet and stabs him again and again and again.

Eventually, he stops moving.

Shadow should, under normal circumstances, be completely immune to such an attack. However, Shatter has never particularly liked Shadow, thus he has had no problem with downgrading his brother’s immunities. Thus, this simple weapon is enough to end him. His death is painless, but it is still full of fear, just as Shatter had hoped. Eventually, his code strings unwind and he breaks apart, dissipating into nothingness.

Terezi stumbles out of the hut, clutching at the axe in her shoulder, blood spilling down her arm. She ends up tearing it out, opting to bleed to death rather than keep going, considering that all her friends are dead, Earth C is gone, and she’s now left alone in a dead and empty Medium. With that, she lays down on the quiet beach and lets her eyelids droop, closing her eyes and letting silence overtake her. Of course, death never comes, as much as she would like it to. A portal crackles into existence, and a version of John Egbert steps out of it. Specifically, the John who will one day become The Administrator. He helps her to her feet, an action that she barely resists, and helps her into the portal. After that, it closes, leaving the dead world behind.

* * *

Sharpen and Shard are silent when Shatter arrives, whereupon he instantly notices that there are only two of them. “Shackle and Shadow?” Shard shakes her head. “Well then.” Shatter says. “Guess it’s just the three of us. Come on.”

With that, Shatter teleports away, Sharpen and Shard disappearing after him. At the exact same time they disappear, Forrester and Shade finally penetrate the energy shield surrounding the world. Even still, their energy signatures are easy to spot amidst the dead world.

“They’re gone.” Forrester says. “Huh.”

“Wait, we missed them?” John asks. “And we waited around for no real reason?”

“Not necessarily.” Shade says. “They’ve gone to The Core.”

“The what?” Terezi asks, making her >:? face.

“The Core.” Forrester repeats. “The one at the centre of all the timelines. Like how a Sun is the centre of a Solar System.”

“They were always going there.” Shade says. “So this was a waste of time, wasn’t it?”

“No.” Forrester says. “Because we can follow their signature while it’s still fresh, ride the wave, so to speak.”

“We can do that?” John asks.

“Yes.” Forrester says in a rather monotone voice.

“Huh.” John says. “Yeah, I know nothing about any of this.”

“Welcome aboard.” Forrester says.

“Let’s go.” Shade says, and gestures for the other three to follow as he tracks Shatter’s signal through the nothingness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was all pointless. Whatever.


	10. Ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We're coming up on the endgame. Ish.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I give up on writing notes, it's 5:00 PM and I'm already half asleep.

“I just nearly died.” Ter3zi says, breaking the silence.

“Hmm?” Sigma asks, barely looking up from the papers he’s looking over.

“I just nearly died.” Ter3zi says. “I’ve been watching my home timeline. Not very pretty, but… I nearly died, and then you showed up. And off we went.”

“Yeah, to loop.” Sigma says, chuckling a little.

“I taught you, then you taught me…” Ter3zi says, and scoffs. “So where’d it come from in the first place, that knowledge, that power?”

“Who knows.” Sigma says. “It’s best not to think about it, I’ve found. It’s wibbly wobbly.”

“Timey wimey.” Ter3zi finishes for him. “Pretty strange.” there’s a pause, before she adds “I should get going. Forrester and Shade will definitely be needing some backup.”

“Yeah.” Sigma says, still barely paying attention.

“Hey.” Ter3zi says. “Don’t let all that paperwork rot your brain.”

“Right.” Sigma says.

“Ciao.” Ter3zi says, and then steps through a portal and disappears, leaving Sigma alone.

____________________

“Welcome to the party, pal.” John says as soon as John Harley steps through a portal and finds himself floating outside the massive amber-orange sphere of light that is The Core.

“Did you seriously just quote Die Hard at me?” Harley asks.

“Yeah.” John says.

“Of all things, you went with Die Hard?” Harley asks. “Not… anything else?”

“What, like Con Air?” John asks.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Harley says. “Although, to be honest, I haven’t seen it.”

“You haven’t seen Con Air?” John asks. “Aren’t you like… me? Literally?”

“It’s 2100 back home. Do you watch films from 1914?” Harley asks. “That’s why I’ve never seen it. Hundred year gap is too big.”

“Huh.” John says. “That makes sense.”

“Yes it does.” Harley says.

"How have you see Die Hard then?" John asks.

"Preserved in the Library of Congress." Harley says. "That's how." A moment later, Nicole and Sophia appear as they step through reality. “Hey fellas.” Harley says.

“Nice to see you.” Sophia says.

“Glad you could make it.” Harley says.

“So, what’s the deal?” Nicole asks. “Where is he now?”

“In The Core.” Forrester says, floating over to the others and pointing over his shoulder at the large amber coloured sphere of energy.

“So, how do we get in?” Nicole asks.

“Surprised you don’t know that.” Forrester says.

“Shut up.” Nicole says as she scowls. “How do we get in?”

“Well, Shade’s busy cracking it.” Forrester says, and gestures to Shade working away at forming a crack in the amber sphere, glyphs and strings of code drifting through the void as he does so. He gives a little wave.

“Sharpen and Shard used up most of their defensive power without even realizing it, so this defense wasn’t particularly tough even with Shatter’s help, especially considering The Core is particularly hard to deadlock.” Shade says. “Even still, he’s got the help of The Lady of the Void. But even she can’t make an overly strong deadlock on a universal core. These things sure are something else.” Shade says. “This should only take a good half hour.”

“Half an hour’s too long.” Harley says. “We can’t wait that long.”

“Actually, we can.” Ter3zi says as soon as she appears. “Hi.”

“Hello.” Forrester says, and nods at her.

“You smell a bit different.” Other Terezi says. “Like me, but… stranger.”

“That’s one way to put it.” Ter3zi says. “I am certainly strange.”

“So then, we’re all here.” Forrester says. “Right.”

“I certainly wonder what his plan is.” Sophia says. “How are we going to do this?”

“Bust in and give him hell before he can conduct his plan.” Forrester says. “Any objections?”

“Not really.” Nicole says. “Sounds a little fun.”

“Not really much of a plan.” Sophia responds.

“It’s alright.” Ter3zi says. “We won’t need anything substantial. That plan is good enough.”

“Really?” Sophia asks.

“It better be.” Harley says. “We’ll need to be ready.”

“And how do you fit into this exactly?” Nicole asks. “The rest of us have got magic and powers, and you’re just kind of… you.” she scoffs. “Not very tough if you ask me.”

“Yeah, well, I brought this.” Harley says, and pulls out a sylladex, rummaging through it and pulling out a computer, a long cord, and a spear-like object. “I’ll be plugging this into The Core, any damage he might do I shall try to reverse.”

“Are you sure you can do that?” Forrester asks.

“Oh, yeah.” Harley says. “I do this all the time.”

“Do you now?” Forrester sarcastically says.

“No, seriously.” Harley says. “I deal with Core damage at least once a month. Whenever you damage or destroy one of the many timelines, it messes with The Core. Usually not overly bad, but definitely worth some effort to patch it up.”

“Oh.” Forrester says. “Right. Shouldn’t that take a lot of power?”

“Surprisingly, not really.” Harley says. “Universal coding rarely does. It’s odd that way.”

“How about that. Does it ever require anything substantial?” Forrester asks.

“Souls.” Harley says. “If you’re talking about fixing several timelines, or possibly if you were to fix the whole universe. Apparently that’s what the Administrator did last time.”

“Ah yes, that.” Forrester says.

“So, Shade, how long do we have, exactly?” Harley asks.

“Half an hour.” Shade says.

“Better hope we can reach Shatter before he does whatever the hell he’s planning.” Harley says.

____________________

Shatter stares across the expanse of orange coloured pillars and the amber sky. The ground is completely flat, and extremely smooth. It’s perfectly quiet, perfectly peaceful.

“Our plan was never to destroy the Cancer, was it?” Sharpen asks, already knowing the answer.

“No.” Shatter says. “There’s something far greater at work.”

“And what is that something far greater?” Sharpen asks.

“You don’t need to know that.” Shatter says. “What’s important is that we use The Lady of The Void’s power to take over all of Universe “Five” first. Then I’ll give you the details.”

“Alright, be vague about it.” Sharpen says. “I assume you’ll be doing the bulk of the work, so what do we do?”

“Nothing.” Shatter says. “You wait.”

“Right.” Sharpen says, and then saunters over to Shard, who has so far been quite silent. He pauses to briefly turn back. “What should we do when the cavalry arrives?”

“Let them come.” Shatter says. “Their arrival is anticipated.”

“Oh, great.” Sharpen says. “How pleasant. I’m sure that won’t backfire.”

Sharpen sits down next to Shard and whistles a small tune to himself as Shatter begins to restructure what he can of The Core’s code.

____________________

After half an hour of nothing in particular happening, a perfectly square hallway appears in the amber sphere, a passage drilled into darkness. “Bingo.” Shade says, and looks across the faces of Forrester, John, Terezi, Nicole, Sophia, Ter3zi, and Harley. “Got it.”

“Right then, unto the breach.” Harley says, and steps through first. Forrester goes next, and Shade follows. John goes after him, looking slightly uncomfortable amidst everyone else. Nicole and Sophia side by side, and the two Pyropes take up the rear, the regular one in a strange awe of her older alternate self. After a short time of wandering through the amber hallway, they find themselves standing in a savannah of sorts, but the grass is made of amber shards that seem to sway in the wind, and the sky is a deep orange. There is no sun, the area is simply bright.

“I don’t recall seeing any of this.” Harley says.

“He’s done some redecorating.” Sophia observes as she begins to move through the grass ahead of everyone else.

“I don’t like it.” Nicole says, frowning.

“You don’t like anything.” Sophia says.

“Why’s everything orange?” John asks, confused as ever.

“Every core universe has its corresponding colour of Core.” Harley says. “An orange of sorts for “Five”, Blue and Green for “Four”, it trades around a bit. As for “Three”…” Harley trails off and clicks his tongue as they all begin to move through the amber plain, “It used to be a nice Purple for “Three”, but now it’s just black thanks to our good friend Void.”

“Who’s Void?” John asks.

“Long story.” Harley says. “Universe “Two”, just like “Four”, periodically moves between Red and Yellow. Funny like that. “One”, well. Nobody’s ever seen One’s core.”

“Sarrus thinks it’s Teal.” Ter3zi says. “How flattering.”

“Does Sarrus mean that, or does The Administrator think that?” Harley asks.

“The second one.” Ter3zi says. “Just a theory.”

“So what do you think we're looking for?” Forrester asks. “Rainbow coloured rift? One guy, sitting on a rock? Big sphere of pulsing darkness?”

“Hard to say.” Shade says. “I can’t see a lot here.”

“Cores are tricky.” Harley says. “Who knows what the fuck is up with them. They’re hard to see inside. I’ve tried it, it’s hard. Very hard.”

“So, we don’t actually have a clue what we’re looking for, then.” Forrester says.

“Well, you may not be wrong with those suggestions.” Ter3zi says.

“You know what we’re going up against?” Nicole asks, clearly not happy having to ask. “Since you can apparently see everything.”

“I’m not entirely sure.” Ter3zi says. “This bit’s cloudy.”

“Oh, that’s reassuring.” Nicole mutters.

“Scared?” Sophia asks.

“Fuck off.” Nicole snarls.

“Everything smells like oranges.” Terezi says, wrinkling her nose.

“Fascinating isn’t it?” Ter3zi asks.

“A bit sharp.” Terezi says.

“Get used to it.” Ter3zi says. “You’ll be smelling quite a bit of this.”

“What’s that?” Sophia says aloud, staring into the distance. The others look where she’s looking and see a distant black pillar.

“Nothing good.” Harley says.

“Hold on, that’s not what I think it is, is it?” Forrester wonders aloud, and hurries towards it.

“I think it might be, oh bollocks.” Harley says as he runs after Forrester.

“What is that?” Sophia asks when they arrive at the tall black shape standing in stark contrast with the orange sky and grass.

“Obsidian pillar.” Harley says. “Only, it’s not really an obsidian pillar. Pretty sure ores stand in for things here. And this represents something else. Not very nice.”

“It’s been compromised. What’s he done?” Forrester wonders aloud.

“Only one way to find out.” Harley says. “I’ll stay here for the moment, the rest of you, keep looking.” With that, he pulls out the long spear-like object and jams it into the pillar, before plugging a cord into the end of it and attaching that to a computer, whereupon he begins to type something. “God, this is so tedious.” he hisses as he types. “Go.” he says. “I’ll be over whenever I can be. Just go.”

“Hold on, did you get that device?” Forrester asks. “Just remembered.”

“Right.” Harley says, and pulls out a small black tube from his pocket and hands it to Forrester. “No worries, I forgot it too.”

“That would be nasty if one of us didn’t remember, wouldn’t it?” Forrester asks.

“Yes, it would.” Harley says. “Now go.”

“What’s that?” Shade asks.

“Nothing important.” Forrester says, smiling.

“Then it’s definitely important.” Shade says.

“You got me.” Forrester responds. “I can’t say anything now, Shatter could be listening, but when the time comes, you’ll see.”   
“I get it.” Shade says. “Alrighty then.”

“He’s a bit different.” John observes as he, Terezi, Forrester, Sophia, Nicole, Terezi, and Shade keep moving forwards. “Than me, I mean.”

“Circumstances shape who you are.” Forrester says. “Lucky bastard didn’t have his world end at the ripe age of 13, even though everyone should try it.”

“I ended my world at 13.” Nicole says.

“Congratulations.” Sophia says. “You have stated the obvious.”

“Hold on, she ended her world at 13?” John asks.

“And I’ll do it again.” Nicole says. “Even if I’m not 13.”

“You’ll do no such thing.” Sophia says.

“Yes, mum.” Nicole says sarcastically.

“How about that, you picked something up.” Sophia says. “Even if you’d never admit it.”

“We’ve gotten off topic.” Forrester says. “Point is, he’s different because his experiences are different. End of story.”

“Do we even know where we’re going?” Terezi asks.

“Not really.” Ter3zi says. “You never quite know with Cores. We’ll just have to find it.”

“Whatever ‘it’ is.” Sophia says. “Could be anything.”

“This landscape is ever changing.” Ter3zi says. “Who knows what we’ll find.”

“I can’t sense Shatter, can you see him?” Shade asks.

“No, and that’s good.” Ter3zi says. “Because if we can’t sense him, then he probably can’t sense us.” she pauses. “Probably.”

“How blissfully reassuring.” Nicole mutters.

“What do you have to worry about anyway?” Forrester asks. “You’re a bloody dragon.”

“I’ve got restraining magic on me.” Nicole matters. “I hate it.”

“I can see something else up ahead.” Shade says, squinting.

“That’s it.” Ter3zi says. “Obelisk was just a decoy, this is more likely the real deal.”

“It’s a big box.” Forrester says.

“Fantastic observation, Forrester.” Nicole says.

“It’s not a box, it’s a building shaped like a box.” Ter3zi says.

The seven of them approach the building that is essentially a giant cube with a door on it. Forrester opens it and pauses, staring into the dark void beyond. “Always the dark voids, what’s with those anyway?”

“Causality is strange.” Ter3zi says. “It likes black voids.”

“I’ve noticed.” Forrester grimaces.

“I like them.” Nicole says.

“Of course you do.” Sophia murmurs.

“Shall we go onwards?” Forrester asks.

“Nowhere else to go, is there?” Shade says.

“Unto the breach.” Forrester says, and immediately runs in.

“Probably not the best idea to run in.” Shade calls after him. “Right? Oh, hell.”

As Shade hurries after Forrester, Ter3zi shakes her head and gestures for the others to follow.

“Aren’t we walking into a trap?” John asks.

“We’re anticipating one.” Ter3zi says as Nicole moves past her. She goes in, and Sophia follows her. John and Terezi waver for a moment on the threshold before they follow.

Darkness envelops them, and then all any of them can hear is silence, everything going completely quiet, unnaturally quiet.

“Soundproofed.” Shade says, although his words are barely audible. He pauses, and then takes a step forward and finds himself in a massive cavernous space made of smooth amber, sculpted in perfect cubes, rather like a Minecraft game. “That’s… strange.” he says aloud, his voice much more audible now, and then notices something even stranger; he’s all alone. He immediately stiffens when he senses something else.

“Hey, brother.” a voice says, and he turns to see Shard floating in the air behind him, dark hair splayed out in the sky as she smiles. Her eyes are a pure amber orange, and her hands glow with a strange pulsing energy.

“Shard?” Shade asks. “Shard, hold still. He’s got control over you, I think I can-”

“No he doesn’t.” Shard says. “He doesn’t have control. He pushed the old Shard until she snapped, and then he had a hold over her. He didn’t rewrite her or enslave her. He changed her mind. And now I’m just what I want to be.”

“Did he tell you what he’s planning?” Shade asks.

“Like I’d tell you.” Shard says.

“Worth a shot.” Shade says.

“Now, hold still.” Shard says.

“What-” Shade says, immediately starting to move, but then he registers the slight stinging sensation in his chest as the tiniest of blades pushes through his back and out his sternum.

“Harmless.” Shard says as Shade stiffens and becomes paralyzed. “Don’t worry. Might sting a bit. You see, Shatter isn’t as strong as he thought he was, so he needs a battery for his plan to work. You were the best pick. Nicole was the other option, but we figured we’re more likely to create a problem than we are to solve one. Hmm.” she frowns. “Now, I have to pop off, you just sit here and don’t cause any trouble, not that you could.” With that, she disappears, leaving Shade frozen in place, code strings already being altered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This could be a problem.


	11. Eleven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> FIGHT!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Amber gets smashed to bits and there are dragons.

“Where’s Shade?” Forrester wonders aloud, and then immediately finds himself alone with Sophia in a large amber room. “Oh, shit.” he whispers. “We’re-”

“Alone.” Sophia cuts him off, scanning the amber area for any sign of the others. “We’ve been split up. Just great.”

“Oh, so now your brother is stuck with a John and two Terezis, he’s going to lose his mind.” Forrester says. “That aside, I’m getting a pretty big signal just beyond that wall.” he gestures to one of the blank walls of smooth amber.

“Same here.” Sophia says. “Can’t tell quite what, though.”

“Blacked out.” Forrester says.

“You don’t get to see what it is.” a voice says, and they turn to see Shard stepping through a rapidly closing tunnel. “It’s our little plan, and we’re definitely not going to tell you what’s going on. That’s not how we roll.”

“I don’t want to hurt you, Shard.” Forrester says.

“So don’t.” Shard says. “I’ll make this quick.”

Shard’s hands glow with orange energy and Forrester snarls.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.” Nicole snarls as she looks around, realizing that she’s alone with John and Terezi in a large square room made of amber. “Stuck alone with you two.”

“I’m not that bad.” John says.

“I wasn’t asking, shut up.” Nicole says.

“I’m getting significantly bad vibes from you.” John says.

“Good.” Nicole says, scanning the room and barely paying attention to him.

“You smell like copper.” Terezi says, wrinkling her nose. “That’s a lot easier to pick out in all this orange.” she adds.

“I don’t smell like copper, I smell like blood.” Nicole says. “Not that you’d know.”

“You don’t smell like blood.” Terezi says, squinting despite the lack of need to.

“Yeah, well…” Nicole trails off, and wheels around with a snarl.

“Hello there.” Sharpen says as he floats down from the ceiling. “I’m not going to humour you, I’ll just get to the point.” On cue, a host of figures appear around the room, doubles of all of the beta and alpha kids, the beta trolls, and Calliope. “Picked these up in some Escher place world thing.” he frowns. “That was a terrible sentence execution. Regardless, we used up most of the drones before, figure I might as well use up the rest of them.”

Nicole rolls her eyes. “Just fucking get it over with.” she groans.

“With pleasure.” Sharpen says, smiling. The doubles charge.

“I take it you wanted to do this one on one?” Ter3zi asks as she finds herself standing alone in an amber room with Shatter.

“I suppose one could say that.” Shatter says. He chuckles. “Thought I’d have a little chat.”

“Not going to say what you’re planning, though.” Ter3zi says. “Knowing you.”

“Nope.” Shatter says. “Telling my plan would be cliche. I like to subvert cliches.”

“Yes, because you’re meant to destroy plots.” Ter3zi says. “That’s how you work.”

“Indeed.” Shatter says.

“Funny, if you die before your plan comes to fruition and we never find out what it is, that will be a subversion and you’ll have to go along with it.” Ter3zi says.

“I doubt it.” Shatter says. “I’ve already gotten well along in the span of half an hour, and it won’t take me much longer to get this over with.”

“Let me try and figure this out then.” Ter3zi says. “So, you could do anything to the rest of Universe “Five” from The Core, so I’m guessing you plan to do something involving all those timelines. Or rather,  _ she _ ’s planning something involving all those timelines. Destroying, corrupting…” she pauses. “Controlling?” she suggests. Shatter stiffens. “Ooh, that struck a chord.” Ter3zi says. “I assume you want to take control of the timelines and use their power, no, their people, which means that- _ oh _ .” she smiles, displaying her shark-like teeth. “You want our source of soldiers, don’t ya?” she asks. “All those timelines chock full of people you could control. The power you could have. Funny, I suppose she doesn’t have any army of her own.”

“Something like that.” Shatter says, clearly not very happy at what she’s deducing.

“You need an army to stand up to us, or…” Ter3zi trails off as she watches Shatter’s facial expressions. “You need an army to stand up to someone else. Some _ thing _ else. So what is that something? Dark Sun? 8624? Something else?”

“It doesn’t matter.” Shatter says. “I think you’ve done more than enough deducing. I’ll be getting along now.” with that, he takes a step backwards and vanishes.

“Something else, then.” Ter3zi says. “Figures, with that defensive tone. Wonder what that something else is.”

“I don’t want to hurt you, Shard.” Forrester snarls. “But I also can’t let you suffer.”

“Oh, I’m far from suffering.” Shard says, smiling.

“No.” Forrester says. “But the old Shard, she was good, she cared, she’d never let anyone control her, never let herself turn bad. But she’s clearly gone, isn’t she?”

“I’m right here.” Shard says.

“You still care about your siblings, but every other part of you is slowly but surely being purged. I can’t let you be broken any more, Shard.” Forrester says. “So, I’m sorry.”

“Forrester, don’t.” Sophia warns.

“We’re running out of time and options, and I can’t let her be broken any further.” Forrester says.

“So then, whatcha gonna do?” Shard asks.

“This.” Forrester says, very casually. He flicks his hand, and there’s a thunderous crack, punctuated by her screams as she’s consumed by flames and breaks apart into glass shards which shatter into nothing when they hit the ground. Sophia gives him a horrified look. “I didn’t know I could still do that. But it comes when I need it most. C’mon.”

“You killed her.” Sophia says quietly. “You actually killed her.”

“And what was going to be the alternative?” Forrester asks. “Let her keep deteriorating until she was a shell of her former self?”

“What about rewriting her?” Sophia asks.

“Couldn’t you sense it?” Forrester asks. “Her code was an error to begin with, one that we technically never fixed no matter how hard we tried. Any rewrite of her coding is irreversible.”

“What?” Sophia asks.

“Yeah.” Forrester sighs. “Harley told a few people, but he didn’t tell everyone else. Once Shatter got a hold of those four, there wasn’t a way back. We might have been able to fix them, just maybe, before, but not now. He’s clearly gotten into their heads too much. They’re basically already dead.”

“Oh.” Sophia says. “You seem a bit cold right now.”

“Salfeng Disease.” Forrester says. “I have a tendency to swing around with my personality. It’s like DID, but it’s all one mind.” he seems like he’s hiding something, but Sophia doesn’t prod.

“I had a feeling.” Sophia says.

“Now, we should probably do something about getting out of this giant amber room.” Forrester says. “There’s still that signal behind this wall.” he taps the smooth surface of one of the walls. “Question is, what is it?”

“Think you can break through?” Sophia asks. “Because I don’t think I can. I mainly do defense.”

“I might be able to.” Forrester says. “He must have some degree of control over The Core to be able to warp the landscape into rooms like this. That definitely can’t be good.”

“No it can’t.” Sophia says, then suddenly tenses. “Oh.” she whispers.

“What?” Forrester asks.

“I think The Core has relieved my self-imposed lock on being a dragon.” Sophia says, and then smiles a slightly wicked smile. “How interesting.”

Sharpen’s screams echo through the amber room as Nicole continues to unleash the full brunt of her power on him, golden light flowing all over him, incredibly painful despite its appearance. John and Terezi watch in silent horror, having finished off the various doubles. “You know, Sharpen,” Nicole says, “I’m not going to lie, I certainly admire you for a select few of your abilities. Possibly even your personality.” she chuckles. “However, I hate every other aspect of you. I could give a speech, but I hate speeches, and I have no time for you. Goodbye.” she balls her hand into a fist, and Sharpen is crushed into oblivion.

“Holy shit.” John says after a long silence.

“Don’t test me.” Nicole says.

“Why would I do that?” John asks.

“You’d be surprised.” Nicole says, almost smirking. “Now then, on the topic of this wall…” she says, turning to one of the walls of amber, “It should be broken. You two might want to stand back. This could get messy. Hold on…” Nicole tenses, then smiles. “I can be a dragon again.” she turns to the other two. “Definitely stand back. Time for me to have some fun.”

Shade stares helplessly at Harley, who is just as paralyzed as him and is magically bound to a large amber shard jutting up from the ground. Shatter paces between them.

“You know what I hate about your powers, Shade?” Shatter asks. “Your ‘plotline duplication’,” he scoffs, “Is an insult to all that is.”

“You use it too, motherfucker.” Shade struggles to say.

“True.” Shatter says. “I stole it. I’m not proud about what it does, but it works. Do you have any idea what you do?” he leans in close as he makes gestures with his hands. “You put all these scenes from all these things into the narrative, but you rob them of their meaning in doing so. They lose all their reason to exist.” he scowls.

“They can gain new meanings, can’t they?” Shade manages to say. “That’s why it works. It helps people get better, helps defeat darkness, helps…” he strains for a moment, “Helps change people in monumental ways.”

“Ugh.” Shatter says. “‘Can’ gain new meanings, hmm? How many purposes are lost?”

“Says you.” Shade half-snarls. “You sideline every single major character. Turn them into nothing but caricatures, pawns in your games.” he gasps for a moment as the pain in his chest flares, but keeps speaking. “They barely get to exercise their freedoms for long before you start killing them. You can’t say purposes are lost when you yourself rob these people of their growth, or even let them have the right to do anything other than what you say.”

“Hmm.” Shatter frowns. “You’re certainly correct there. But you can shut up.” he waves his hand, and an orange substance covers Shade’s mouth, effectively muting him. “As for you…” he trails off as he turns to Harley. “You got close enough to figuring out what I was planning, didn’t you?” he sighs. “Really caused a ruckus here and sent The Core itself broadcasting what I was doing via black fucking pillars, didn’t I? Oh well.”

“You’re planning on converting all of Universe “Five”, and not very subtly might I add.” Harley says casually, even if he sounds a little weak.

“Oh well.” Shatter says, frowning. “Doesn’t really matter whether you know or not now, as I’m already well along.” He turns, and points at the far above ceiling of amber, which looks much more jagged than the floor they’re standing on. “Now, Shade, I need you as a battery of sorts, so this might sting a bit. Uncle Harley, to be honest you don’t need to be here, but you’re here now and I figure you might like the light show.” a large sphere of light begins to phase through the amber ceiling and glimmer like a sun as it hangs and turns slowly, like a disco ball. “That’s just representative of Universe “Five” as a whole. I do like visuals.” Shatter explains. “Anyway, shall we get this started?”

Shatter breaks into a grin and raises his hand, presumably to snap his fingers, but frowns when he hears what sounds like the smashing of glass, followed by a second equally loud smash, punctuated by quieter sounds of shattering glass, and amber cascades down as the far wall, made of more smooth amber, smashes into trillions of shards. A booming laugh echoes through the landscape, and Shatter frowns.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” he snarls.

A large humanoid dragon clad in bronze armour with skin the colour of gold and horns that stretch far above his head cackles as he steps out of one of the amber rooms. “No, I am not kidding you.” it laughs. “It’s good to be back.” the dragon flexes its long claws and grins. “Even if I’m not quite the same as I wanted to look… better than nothing.” he cackles again. “Oh, you have no idea just how good it is to be back.”

“ _ You _ ’re here.” Shatter snarls. “You are just about the last person I need.”

“We’re both here.” another voice says, and the first dragon sidesteps to reveal a second humanoid dragon, this one with glowing teal skin and horns, about the size of the first. “I figured this was more advantageous, and I’m sure he figured that too.”

“Even better, both of you.” Shatter growls. “I don’t have time for any of you!” he shouts, and whips his hand through the air, letting loose a bolt of scarlet fire that balloons in size and forms a wall of dancing sparks in a rainbow of colours. The golden dragon hisses and rears back, snarling, and Shatter snarls back in a mocking gesture. The teal dragon opts to assess the strange sparks, whereas the golden dragon seems content to barrage it with all manner of spells and magic. As for the others, Ter3zi seems lost in thought, John and Terezi just look rather confused, understandably so, and as for Forrester, he locks eyes with Shade as he tries to mentally puzzle out a way to get across, noticing that the wall seems to be continuing to stretch onwards into the distance, effectively splitting The Core in two. Shade struggles to try and pull himself free of the microscopic needle piercing him in the back, but it’s no use.

“Let’s just get this party started.” Shatter growls, and snaps his fingers. A black pinprick of darkness appears on the sun-like light above, and begins to spread. As it does, the light sources that don’t seem to exist start to flicker out too, leaving the sun as the only light left, now slowly being covered as something ripples through Universe “Five”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh oh. Homestuck gonna get fucked up.


	12. Twelve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shine on You Crazy Diamond.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am tempted to name this chapter Shine on You Crazy Diamond.

[ An invisible wave of energy begins to spread. ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54W8kktFE_o)

[0:00]

Rose Lalonde is pouring herself a cup of tea as her wife Kanaya Maryam lounges on the couch when she feels a strange presence. “Kanaya?” she wonders aloud. “Do you feel-” she stops dead, and immediately goes blank faced as the cup of tea slips from her hand and shatters on the ground.

“Rose?” Kanaya asks, worried, and then she feels the same aura. She stops dead in her tracks and goes blank faced as well, her arms falling to her sides as she goes completely slack. She stands, staring into the void, just like Rose is.

-

In another world, Karkat Vantas is standing in the Land of Pulse and Haze, having just arrived in it. He’s in the middle of a conversation with Terezi, shouting his annoyance aloud, when she suddenly goes silent. Dead silent. No words, no messages. First, he’s annoyed. Then he’s concerned. Then, he’s afraid. Then, he feels a strange presence and goes blank faced and his entire body goes slack as he stiffens.

-

In another world, Dave Strider is climbing the radio tower to try and get to his kernelsprite before the massive meteor bearing down on his building blows him to bits, but then he feels a strange presence, and stiffens. Then, he goes blank faced, and all of reality freezes. Across the U.S, his friends go blank faced too.

-

In another world, Nepeta Leijon scrambles backwards to try and escape Gamzee Makara, his clubs raised high above his head. Adrenaline runs through her veins as desperation grips her, and then… she feels a strange presence. Gamzee’s face goes blank, and his arms drop to his side. A moment later, Nepeta’s face goes blank too, and both of them sit, completely expressionless. Her last thought is how blissful it all feels, and then she feels nothing at all.

-

In another world, Dirk Strider stands on the bridge of a spaceship as it jets through the void, his destination currently unknown. He feels a strange presence, and then stiffens, losing all feeling as his body goes slack and his face goes blank. Elsewhere in the same ship, the robot of Rose Lalonde crashes to the floor as her body stiffens and goes slack. Terezi Pyrope is the last one to sense the strange presence, and then she too has gone blank.

-

[0:46]

The invisible aura spreads through Universe “Five”, hitting every timeline and rendering every character paralyzed. Soon, complete and utter silence has fallen throughout every one of them, two million worlds frozen, with everyone inside them powerless. Shatter smirks as the sun of sorts on the ceiling is completely blacked out and darkness falls, the wall of sparks the only light, everything bathed in a flickering rainbow light. He waves his hand, and it surges forth, pushing everyone further backwards. Both dragons can barely stand it and have to fly backwards, being pushed back towards the amber walls. The golden one breaths fire at the wall of sparks in a futile attack, and the sparks retaliate by forming into several dozen smaller dragons composed of dancing red light, attacking both other dragons. John and Terezi are knocked to the floor in the process of the transformation, and Ter3zi just barely stands her ground. Forrester, on the other hand, pushes right through, snarling as he runs towards Shatter, who is now pondering the music he thinks he can hear.

[1:13]

“Oh, piss off.” Shatter snarls as Forrester charges up some sort of spell, waving his hand and ripping apart the amber floor to create a gaping chasm as hundreds of tons of gems are thrown into the air and rain down towards him. Forrester lets loose the spell he was already preparing, blowing a hole in the falling debris and just clearing a path that he just barely rolls under, and then leaps over the newly formed chasm without missing a beat. Even as he gets closer and closer to Shatter, his target pauses. “Is that Pink Floyd?” the program wonders aloud. “You’re doing something, aren’t you?” he asks as he steps towards Shade.

“Don’t think so.” Shade manages to say.

“What are you doing?” Shatter asks, snarling.

[1:30]

Shatter turns and creates a sword out of thin air to block Forrester’s sword attack. They trade blows for a moment, Shatter looking more annoyed than worried. He cracks his neck, and the ceiling cracks open, thousands of tall but thin amber stalactites raining down from the cavernous sky, striking at both of them, forcing them to move to dodge. Forrester manages to shove Shatter back for just a moment, enough to swing his sword and break the sorcerous bonds tying Harley to the rock. Shatter slams into him, and both of them go stumbling backwards and fall into the chasm, which cracks open as well, exposing a whole underground network of criscrossing islands and bridges of orange stone.

[1:48]

Harley stumbles over to Shade and pulls out a flare-like object from his pocket, lighting it and pressing it against the spike through Shade’s back. Slowly, it melts apart like candle wax, and the hole in his back mends itself instantly as well.

“You good?” Harley asks.

“Ouch.” Shade responds.

There’s a thunderous crack as the ground shatters and breaks apart into chunks and begins to spin through the newly created void, Forrester and Shatter crashing up through one of the cracks, fistfighting. Forrester has the black black tube from earlier in one hand, and seems to be trying to stab Shatter with a small needle on the end of it.

“The fuck is that?” Shade wonders aloud.

“I designed that out of an epipen.” Harley says. “The plan is to stick it into Shatter and copy whatever code processes he’s running and transfer them to the wielder, allowing them to take control of them.”

“That sounds complex.” Shade says.

“It is.” Harley says. “But not as complex as you.”

“I imagine.” Shade says.

[2:11]

Shatter lets loose a bolt of energy that sends Forrester flying backwards and crashing into a far wall, then tears the ball of rock that was once the mini-sun from the ceiling and swings it towards him. The golden dragon ends up telekinetically catching it and swinging it back at Shatter, who smashes it to pieces, sending shards everywhere. The golden dragon unleashes a jet of flame, while the teal one comes in from behind Shatter and lets loose with some kind of semi-transparent attack. Shatter ends up blocking both of them with two tall rods of golden fire on either side that absorb the energy of both attacks, which are then sent spinning towards both dragons and blasting them away with intense bursts of energy.

[2:25]

Shatter turns back to Shade and Harley, floating down to the chunk of rock they’re on and telekinetically whacking Harley aside onto another mote of amber so he can focus on Shade. “You’re playing a Pink Floyd song, aren’t you?” he calmly asks, although he looks like he’s on the verge of losing it. “I get it. We’ve all got a music player of some kind. But why now?”

[2:35]

Shatter turns when he hears screaming and turns to see the regular Terezi leaping at him, caneswords raised. He scoffs, and shatters her into glass with a snap of his fingers. John screams something and flies at Shatter, only to get caught midair and crushed into nothing as Shatter closes his fist. “You seriously brought them along? Incompetents?”

“They’re far from incompetent.” Shade says. “If only you knew how hard they fought. How strong they can be.”

“Oh, I’m well aware. I was there, after all.” Shatter says. “Now, answer my question.”

“Fuck you.” Shade responds.

[2:45]

Shade brings up a wall of bright green energy and sends it at Shatter, who blocks it with his palm, then balls up his fist and destroys it. “You’re not very well skilled with attacking and defending, are you?” he asks. “Never really tested it out. Not that I’m complaining.” with that, he shoots a tiny pink ball of light that suddenly balloons to massive size and then partially encases Shade, turning an ugly black colour and sticking him to the orange amber wall. “Now then, stay right there.” Shatter says. “I’m not done with you yet. Still have to get this over with.”

-

[3:00]

All across Universe “Five”, everyone incapacitated by the strange aura looks up, feeling a strange new sensation spreading through their bodies.

Rose Lalonde jerks her body in response.

Kanaya Maryam sharply breathes through her teeth.

Karkat Vantas hisses.

Dave Strider swallows.

Nepeta Leijon gasps.

Gamzee Makara briefly spasms.

Dirk Strider sighs.

One by one, billions of characters across Universe “Five” have their own reactions of some kind to the sensation, but they stiffen once more and silence falls again. However, their eyes begin to change, each changing to a pure yellow colour with black slit pupils, like the eyes of a cat or a snake. Then, they begin to chant something unintelligible, one trillion voices in harmony. Shatter smiles as he listens to it, flinching when he sees the golden eyes glinting in the darkness again, but otherwise remaining stoic as ever.

“Still don’t understand why you’re playing  _ Pink Floyd _ , brother.” Shatter says.

“He didn’t start it, I did!” Forrester shouts as he runs back over, hurling motes of fire at Shatter as he goes. “I kickstarted it in his code!”

“And why in the world would you do that?” Shatter wonders. “Simply curious.”

“Because there’s a hell of a lot more subroutines you don’t know about.” Forrester says as he gets closer.

“And what would those be?” Shatter asks.

“Take a guess.” Forrester snarls, the two of them throwing lightning bolts at each other. “It’s all about music. It’s encoded into him.”

“What do you mean by that?” Shatter wonders aloud.

“Yes, what the fuck do you mean!?” Shade shouts from where he’s half-cocooned on the wall.

“Music is your secondary trigger!” Forrester shouts, then adds “So to speak! There’s another layer beneath conscious and subconscious, and you can do things in tune with music!”

“Not going to lie, that sounds rather silly.” Shatter says.

“You know what, maybe it is.” Forrester responds. “And that’s ok. Because the multiverse is a big and frankly ridiculous place. What’s wrong with a little silly?”

“Well then, what’s it do?” Shatter asks, briefly glancing at Shade as he struggles.

“There’s an art to syncing action with music.” Forrester says. “One of the things we’ve experimented with is making that music trigger action. It opens up a whole new barrage of abilities in the heat of the moment. And we’re coming up on the first boost.”

“What first boost?” snarls Shatter.

[3:56]

“ _ That _ first boost.” Forrester says. “Hear it? Feel it?”

Shatter growls and increases the power behind his attacks, back still turned to Shade, who isn’t struggling anymore. “You really think you can stop me with music?”

[4:08]

“We don’t think we can stop you with music.” Shade says from behind him, and Shatter looks over his shoulder, arms still up and throwing attacks at Forrester. “We  _ know _ we can stop you with music.”

“You’re not going to say it’s because of the power of friendship, right?” Shatter asks.

[4:20]

“No.” Shade says, almost chuckling. “Wow, this is… a lot of new subroutines. You’re in for it now, Shatter.”

“You seem to be rather pinned to the wall, what can you do about it?” Shatter asks.

[4:25]

Shade laughs. “You shouldn’t have rewritten my coding and killed all those people.” he says. “Because I can do all sorts of things now. And I’ve had enough of you.”

[4:32]

Without warning, Shade shoots off the wall and slams into Shatter, sending both of them flying off into the distance, trading blows as they go.

“Figures.” Forrester says, briefly flinching. “There’s some pretty nasty stuff coded into him.”

“Sure is.” Harley says as he finally manages to stumble back over. “Now we have to get that device to him.”

“So he can jam his bro.” Forrester says, drawing out the o.

Ter3zi casually walks over to them, having finally managed to get across the newly created network of floating islands. “Hey fellas.” she casually says. “This place sure does seem to be cracking apart at the seams.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t count on it holding together. Speaking of…” Harley says, and then rummages through his sylladex. “Always have five computers.” he off-hand says, then pulls out a backup cable and rod, jamming it into the ground.

[4:51]

“There.” he says, looking over what looks to be a map of Universe “Five”, with blue strings twisted through every single world. “It’s in all of ‘em. However, we can use this to help us.”

“How?” Forrester wonders aloud. “I think I get it, but I’m not sure.”

“I doubt I can hijack that signal, but I can piggyback it, so to speak.” Harley says. “I might be able to transmit something through all those blue lines to help strengthen them and keep this place together. Hell if I know, I’ve never done this before.”

“I’d be a bit worried if you did.” Forrester says.

“I would too, trust me.” Harley says.

“We’ve still got to get to Shatter and stick that device in him.” Ter3zi says, pointing at the small black tube that Forrester seems to have stuck in his pocket.

“Problem is, now Shade might be more of an obstacle than Shatter himself.” Harley says. “He’s got a hell of a lot of newly activated subroutines that could shred us.”

“He can control them, can’t he?” Sophia asks, running over.

“You’re back to being human.” Forrester observes.

“Yeah, this place is degrading and so is our ability to maintain draconic form.” Sophia says, then points over her shoulder at Nicole, who’s getting closer, grumbling. “She’s back to being human too. Anyway, he can control those subroutines, can’t he?”

“He’s never tested them.” Harley says.

“Hmm, sounds like we missed something then, fellas?” Ter3zi says.

“I was going to teach him.” Harley says, shrinking a bit. “But I had things to do.”

“Right.” Ter3zi says. “Might want to focus on helping him with that whenever we get home.”

“ _ If _ we get home.” Sophia says.

“Now, now, be optimistic.” Ter3zi says.

“Because he can’t control his newfound powers, they’ll be doing all kinds of things.” Harley says.

“What sort of things?” Nicole asks as she finally reaches them.

“Nice of you to join us.” Forrester says.

“Fuck you.” Nicole says, scowling. “What sort of things?”

“Depends.” Harley says.

“How broad.” Sophia says.

“That’s not an answer, Harley.” Nicole says.

“Hey, what do you want me to say?” Harley asks. “Swirling fire? Short bursts of psychosis? Knives flying in every direction? There’s a ton of things, alright? It’s a very long list.”

“Could you say more than three things?” Sophia asks.

“I don’t know, ok?” Harley asks. “I’m under a certain degree of stress, and my brain does not do well at remembering things when I am under a certain degree of stress. Plus, I technically only wrote a few of them, Sigma or Umbra or Sarrus, or even the man himself wrote the rest of them once I taught him how to universally code.”

“I miss when he couldn’t code.” Nicole says. “I would still have my old body.”

“You got your old body back, didn’t you?” Sophia asks.

“Yes, for about five minutes.” Nicole grumbles.

“Quit complaining, you’re acting like a child.” Sophia says.

“We’re both technically still children, if you were to compare our lifespan to a human’s lifespan and see how our current ages average out in human years, that makes us about 10.” Nicole says. “Gonna argue with that.”

“We  _ were _ children.” Sophia says. “We passed that, and your math will not dissuade me.”

“If you two could quit bickering,” Forrester says, “This place is collapsing.”

On cue, a huge hole cracks open in the ceiling and amber rains down, crushing one of the falling islands and sending it spinning into the darkness.

[6:28]

“That was close.” Forrester says. “A bit too close.”

“Congratulations for pointing out something that we all noticed.” Nicole says, sighing.

“Now then, how do we take control of the thing going through all those worlds?” Sophia asks.

“Well, we stick Shatter with that device.” Harley says.

“What’s it called, anyway?” Nicole wonders aloud. “What name did you come up with?”

“MKR Transference Device, Version 413.” Harley says without skipping a beat.

“You actually made 413 versions?” Ter3zi asks.

“They explode more often than you’d think.” Harley says. “If one of us sticks that thing into Shatter, they will be able to assume control of the programs of a sort that he’s running and shut the whole thing down.”

“To answer Nicole’s unsaid question, no she does not get to wield it.” Ter3zi says.

“You people never let me have any fun.” Nicole scowls.

“We let you have fun enough.” Ter3zi says.

“What happens if we can’t hold The Core together with this plan?” Forrester asks, despite the fact that he already knows the answer.

“Well, we’ll need someone with a significant amount of power to use their soul as fuel.” Harley says, slowly and cautiously.

“We could use Shatter’s.” Nicole says.

“Don’t you touch him.” Harley says.

“Who said I would?” Nicole grins.

“I wouldn’t try it if I were you.” Ter3zi says. “Trust me, Harley may not be very tough against you, but I wouldn’t say the same for the Administrator.”

Nicole grimaces. “Fuck.” she mutters quietly.

“We’re not using Shatter’s soul.” Sophia says. “I could use mine, if things go south.”

“I’m not going to let you do that.” Nicole says.

“You don’t have a choice in the matter, brother.” Sophia says.

“Hold that thought, they’re coming back ‘round.” Forrester says.

[7:35]

On cue, Shatter and Shade crash back through one of the amber walls, surrounded by a furious storm of green vines, golden flames, and raging ice, not to mention more blades than can be counted. They slam into one of the walls, Shade shouting something and Shatter shouting something back in response, the maelstrom surrounding them growing larger and brighter.

“Jesus.” Forrester says. “That looks nasty.”

“No wonder this place is falling apart.” Sophia says.

“Alright,” Forrester says as he pulls the black tube from his pocket, “I’m going to try and spike Shatter in the… actually, where should I stab him?” he asks.

“There’s no major nerves, so anywhere works.” Harley says.

“Right.” Forrester says, and flies up into the air towards the raging chaos above.

“I would not want to be him right now.” Harley says. “That does not look good at all.”

“You should have trained him for this.” Ter3zi says.

“I was going to, but then that place in Connecticut fucking  _ exploded _ and I skipped it on the list.” Harley grumbles.

“The art of double checking.” Ter3zi says.

“Can you reprimand me later when this place  _ isn’t _ falling apart?” Harley asks.

“You’re still getting reprimanded.” Ter3zi says, grinning.

“Yes, mom.” Harley responds in an overly exaggerated tone.

Up above, Forrester finally reaches the swirling ball of chaos that the two brothers are at the centre of, Shade’s hand glowing red as he blasts some sort of laser at Shatter, who barely dodges, snarling. “Hey, could you let me in!?” he shouts over the noise. “Fucking hell.” he tries to cut a swathe through the wall of magic with dark purple fire, but it rebounds in response and sends him spinning through the air.

In the centre of the sphere, the two brothers briefly pause their fight for a moment of calm.

[8:43]

“Crazy Diamond.” Shatter says through gritted teeth. “Always did love  _ Pink Floyd _ , didn’t you?”

“Along with  _ The Doors _ .” Shade says, sounding a bit stranger.

“Bands from the 60s.” Shatter says. “The  _ 19 _ 60s. Those songs are ancient. Yet you know them, and you love them.”

“Funny, that.” Shade responds, still sounding different.

“You sound different.” Shatter says. “What’s with that?”

“The song says it best.” Shade says, pausing to let the music catch up. “There’s a look in my eyes… like black holes in the sky. You see, I’ve never used these subroutines before. The result is quite interesting.”

“You mean to tell me that you have a superpowered evil side, then?” Shatter asks. “Great, just throw in all the fucking tropes.”

“I suppose one could say that.” Shade says. “After all, it is kind of fun.”

“But even after all that, you still can’t kill me.” Shatter says, now starting to grin.

“I can try.” Shade says, then knocks Shatter all the way back into the wall with a burst of emerald coloured light.

Shatter growls, catching himself midair even as Shade crashes into him, the two of them finding themselves on even ground once more. Shatter shoves Shade away, and actually chuckles for a moment. “So then, you’re not technically yourself right now, are you?” he asls.

“Not technically.” Shade responds.

Shatter chuckles.

[10:07]

“You reached for the secret too soon.” Shatter says in sync with the music, before adding “And this is what you get.”

Shade narrows his eyes. “I figure that I’ll worry about it later.”

“Seems like a problem relevant to the current moment.” Shatter says. “Say, I sure wonder what it would be like if I really tipped you over the edge.”

“I wouldn’t try it.” Shade says darkly.

“Oh, I think I might.” Shatter responds. “I’m free to do what I want.”

“You certainly aren’t.” Shade says. “How would you even ‘tip me over the edge’ anyway?” he asks. “Because at the moment, my emotions have been relatively cut off, so I don’t feel much for everyone else.”

Shatter actually flinches in response to that. “You legitimately seem like you mean that. Hmm.”

“Not much of a plan to cope with that.” Shade says.

“I’ll figure something out.” Shatter says. “I’m flexible, you know me.”

“I most certainly do.” Shade says. “Especially considering quite a few programs here are designed to mimic your mental reactions.”

“Great.” Shatter says, looking increasingly concerned.

[11:09]

“Shade!” Forrester manages to shout over the increasing sound of thunder drowning out all but the two of them. Shade turns, Shatter simply stares, contemplating something. “You have to let me come in!”

“Oh great, you.” Shatter scowls. “What are  _ you _ going to do? Shooshpap him?” he closes his fist, and the gail surrounding them increases in intensity, shredding apart more and more of The Core, throwing amber chunks and pieces this way and that, Universe “Five” beginning to break apart slowly but surely. “Now, I don’t have time to fuck around anymore. Come here.”

Shatter throws some sort of electric whip at Shade from thin air, but his brother cancels it out by counteracting it with a ruby coloured lance of energy that cuts it off and then shatters against the ground as it falls.

“It would really help if you held still.” Shatter snarls.

“No.” Shade responds, surprisingly deadpan.

They begin tossing more bolts of magic and flame at one another, when a massive grey light tears the side of their sphere of destruction into two and nearly knocks both of them out of the sky. Forrester lowers his hands and flies in between them, staring down Shatter.

“I don’t know if you noticed, but we’re in the middle of something.” Shatter says.

“Yes, ending the universe through fury alone, could both of you calm down?” Forrester asks.

“Why should I?” Shatter asks. “I’ve gotten far enough. Now then, I need to just use Shade as a battery for just a teensy bit longer, then I can let him go and we can all go home.”

“This place is falling apart, there’s not a lot you can do about it.” Forrester says. “The Core, once it’s gone, this whole universe is gone. Breaks apart into nothing. So, you can either leave it to die, or you can try and fix it. Which’ll it be, hmm?”

“I think I’ll try a third option.” Shatter says, suddenly flinching right before his eyes glow golden and his pupils change to black slits. “Because I’m sick of playing this game with you.” he says in a different voice than his own.

“Oh, shit.” Forrester says. “It’s you.”

“Of course it’s me.” The Lady of the Void says through Shatter, waving their hand and revealing a blue string dangling from above. They grab the tip of it between their thumb and their index finger. “I could keep playing this game with you, but I’m getting sick of it now. Regardless of whether you want to keep going or not…”

Everything seems to go completely silent.

**“I don’t want to play with you.”**

[12:42]

_ crack _

The sound is small, the tiniest of cracks amidst the complete silence. Then, it gets louder, and there are more and more of them, hundreds, thousands, millions, trillions, as every single timeline in Universe “Five” begins to break apart, smashing into quadrillions of pieces and shards, and then complete and utter silence falls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a lot of planetary / universal destruction in this story, don't I?


	13. Thirteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We haveth reacheth the end  
> eth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end. Or something.

There’s a moment of quiet as the cosmic dust settles, and everyone drops to the floor.

Shatter flinches, back in control of his own body, and stands up, dazed and confused. “Why’d you do that?” he quietly asks. “Did the plan change? Did they go away? Why’d you do that!?” he screams into the silence, and gets no response.

Shade struggles to his feet, already feeling the subroutines vanish, and finding himself normal once more. “You killed them. You killed all of them.”

“I suppose we’re starting from scratch, then.” Shatter says, sighing. “So much for “Five.” Take two, then.”

“I’ve had enough of you.” Shade says. “And I want to get rid of you. But I can’t kill you.”

“So then, whatcha gonna do?” Shatter says.

“I figure I’m going to balance music and plotline duplication.” Shade says, pulling out his father’s guitar from his sylladex and beginning to play a few strings.

“And what have you got that’s going to beat me?” Shatter asks.

“Some good ol’ fashioned rock and roll.” Shade responds.  [ “You just aren’t doing it right.” ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ndx1uhYA6DE)

“Wait a minute, are you duplicating what I think you are?” Shatter asks, and then stiffens as he feels a pressing weight on him. “This isn’t seriously working. It can’t be!”

Shade smiles as he shouts “I’m falling in and out again” along with the song, and Shatter glances up to see a massive portal opening up above him, and is then sucked away into it, disappearing. Silence falls, and the song goes silent, cutting short.

“I didn’t actually think that would work.” Shade says after a long and frankly awkward silence. “That was fairly ridiculous and kind of anticlimactic, but it worked.”

“Welcome to the ever so strange multiverse.” Forrester says as he stumbles over to his friend.

Moments later, the first explosion rings out, followed by several more, until there is a great cacophony of them as The Core begins to collapse, no worlds to sustain it. The amber begins to shatter apart into nothing as it is torn apart by flames and magma as the whole place falls apart. There’s a  _ vwom _ sound as Nicole zaps away and Sophia follows her.

“So much for them!” Harley shouts to be heard over the explosions.

“Can never count on them to stick around when the going gets tough!” Ter3zi shouts.

“Now what!?” Forrester shouts aloud.

“You three should leave, I’m going to see if I might be able to fix this place!” Shade shouts.

“You’re more likely to kill yourself than fix anything!” Harley shouts.

“I’ve got to try!” Shade shouts back in response.

“Can’t let you do that.” Forrester hisses, grabbing him and teleporting away, with Harley and Ter3zi vanishing moments later. The two of them reappear outside The Core, both watching in silent horror as it collapses in on itself, the amber sphere slowly crumpling into a churning mess of burning rock. Shade struggles against Forrester’s grip.

“Let me go, let me go!” Shade says. “I need to fix this!”

“Shade.” Forrester says. “I know you want to prove that you can do some good after all the bad you’ve been used for, but this isn’t the way.”

“I’ve got to try!” Shade shouts in response, tearing himself free from Forrester’s hold and flying towards the rapidly fading Core.

“I get it!” Forrester shouts as he flies after him, Shade already beginning to tap into The Core’s code. “You want to do a heroic sacrifice so you can prove you can do good, but this will kill you!”

“I don’t care!” Shade shouts as they reach the collapsing Core.

“Oh, of course you don’t.” Forrester scowls. “You can’t do this without dying Shade. It’s not worth it. Let me do it.”

“Like hell I’ll let  _ you _ do it.” Shade says. “You’re my friend.”

“And you’re  _ my _ friend.” Forrester says. “And I’m not letting you do this. Let me do it.”

“You’ll die.” Shade says.

“Oh, I know.” Forrester says. “I’ve known when I die for some time now. Let me do this.”

“I won’t let you.” Shade responds.

“Yes, well this place is falling apart and we have less than a minute to do anything about it.” Forrester says. “I’m sorry, but I’d rather I die at peace than you die with your whole life ahead of you.” he grabs Shade and jams the black tube into his shoulder. Shade flinches and then feels the subroutine trying to reconstruct The Core fade from his body. Forrester stiffens just before he teleports them far above the fading sphere of light. “That hurts just a bit. Hmm.”

“What did you do?” Shade asks, but he already knows the answer.

“Stuck the Transference Device in your shoulder and took control of the subroutine you were running, so I can provide The Core with enough fuel, aka my soul, to repair it.” Forrester says, already sounding weaker.

“Why, why the fuck did you do that!?” Shade half-yells.

“I did it so you don’t have to.” Forrester says.

“No, you can’t…” Shade says. “You can’t die, you can’t…”

“I’ve been ready to die at this exact time for the last three years, Shade.” Forrester says. “It’s alright. It’ll be alright.”

“No, but you can’t…” Shade says as Forrester goes limp and stares blankly, his breathing slowing. “You can’t go…”

The Core thrums.

Amber light flashes as it slowly begins to reshape itself.

The trillions of glass-like shards of reality surrounding it, all of the broken timelines, begin to swirl around The Core, getting closer and closer as they begin to enter it.

Shade looks down and gets one last look at The Core blossoming like a beautiful orange flower right before it reaches the crux of the energy buildup within it, exploding outwards in a big bang of sorts. Silence falls and all goes black.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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I

-

John Egbert opens his eyes.

Sitting up, he finds himself in a field in Deltritus, the sky dark and cloudy, night having fallen. His friends are scattered around the same field, with various versions of what looks like himself moving through them and helping them out.

“You alright?” one of them asks, kneeling down and putting a hand on his shoulder.

“I think so.” John says. “My sides still hurt… can still feel what it was like getting squashed.”

“Just take it slow.” the double says. “Don’t move around too much unless you want to be more sore. Alright?”

“Alright.” John says. The double starts to walk away, but John shouts. “Hey! Did… did those people, our doubles, did they fix it?”

“You wouldn’t be here if they didn’t.” the double says. “This whole place got hard reset. Only a handful of worlds will remember anything from before it, and this place is one of them.”

Looking around, John gets better looks at his friends, with Karkat seeming to be recovering from something affecting his breathing and Terezi still flinching from occasional pin pricks of pain. Everyone else seems to be recovering from similar injuries. The security officers are there too, and they look fairly confused, just like everyone else.

Some distance away, ‘Ascii’ Jade and a Roxy in dark black armour watch the whole process.

“I noticed that you and Dance got replaced by new copies.” the Roxy says. “Didn’t want to go back…?”

“Nope.” Ascii says. “Been long enough. Plus, Dance is in Golf-213 now.”

“Is she?” Roxy says, and then winces. “That’s a terrible place.”

“That it is.” Ascii says.

“Will you miss it? Miss them?” Roxy asks, changing the subject.

“I did.” Ascii says. “But I’ve moved on now.”

“Good for you.” Roxy says.

“Yes.” Ascii responds. “Good for me.”

II

-

Jack sits alone on a hill, watching as the gods of Earth C regroup, still remembering how elemental gods came and smashed up the US, but uncertain as to why the damage that was done has been undone, seemingly overnight. Dirk is back too, but he doesn’t seem to remember anything about taking a ship and flying to Deltritus, the whole thing wiped from his mind. Jack sighs, fiddling with his wedding ring a bit before drumming his fingers on his knee and teleporting away.

III

-

Jay and Gamzee don’t say anything either as they sit in the world that was once swarmed by Ignis drones. This world’s Jane is back, but she doesn’t remember anything past the day that John made his choice to stay. There’s simply a giant blank space. Everyone else is clearly wary about her, but realize that she definitely doesn’t know what happened. All traces that Ignis ever existed have been wiped clean as well, justifiably confusing everyone. The hard reset has certainly done quite a bit to this world.

V

-

Sophia finds Nicole sitting on the top of a building as the sun sets. “This is where you went.” Sophia says. “I was wondering.”

“Welcome to the world where everyone died.” Nicole says. “Shame they’re all back now.”

“Too bad they are.” Sophia says sarcastically. “Their memories do seem to be rather spotty, if I’m reading this correctly.”

“Everything’s simply been reset.” Nicole says. “They’re back where they started, so they’ll be acting out the movements they were supposed to go through.”

“There’s no way you’re going to fuck this place up again, I know that tone.” Sophia says.

“Damnit.” Nicole scowls.

IV

-

“How is he?” Harley asks as he walks over to Ter3zi, who is leaning against the door of Shade’s room, eating an apple and seemingly deep in thought.

“Not too good.” Ter3zi says. “He won’t come out of his room, which I can’t blame him for.”

“Was Forrester really supposed to die today?” Harley asks.

“Yep.” Ter3zi says. “Always. He knew it, I knew it.”

“What would have happened if he didn’t?” Harley asks.

“Then Shade would have done it. Gave his life.” Ter3zi says. “Then, a cascade of events would have taken place over the course of the next few years, resulting in an inevitable failure.”

“Always plotline convenience.” Harley says with a sigh, leaning against the wall next to her. “No mercy with it.”

“Mhmm.” Ter3zi sighs. “No there isn’t. Take it from me.”

“What’s the deal with Shatter?” Harley asks.

“He was significantly weakened by a variety of the events occurring, whether he realized it or not, and Shade trapped him in Alpha-Charlie-7.” Ter3zi says.

“Discount Eden?” Harley asks.

“Yep.” Ter3zi says. “My past self will deal with him, and then she’ll go tend to Sarrus.”

“Newly arrived.” Harley says.

“Newly arrived.” Ter3zi parrots, nodding.

“So, should I…” Harley says. “Talk to him?” he pauses, then adds “Considering I’ve dealt with losing someone in the past, I think I should talk to him.” Ter3zi stares at him blankly until he finally says “Alright, I’m talking to him.” Harley easily opens the door and finds Shade lying on his back in the dark, staring up at the ceiling. “Hi, Shade. I’m sure you’re not feeling too good right now.”

“Not really, since all my siblings are dead or evil, and I just lost my best friend.” Shade says. “And Sigma isn’t even here.”

“Actually, I am.” Sigma says, leaning over Harley’s shoulder.

“Jesus, you scared me.” Harley whispers.

“Sorry.” Sigma whispers back. “I can handle this.”

“Right.” Harley says, and steps aside.

“Hi.” Sigma says softly, and sits down on the end of the bed. “I’m sure you’re feeling terrible. I’m sure you’re feeling lonely. I’m sure you wish you could have done the heroic sacrifice and you’re angry that he had to die and you have to live with what you’ve done.”

“Yeah.” Shade says quietly.

“I know quite a few of those feelings well.” Sigma says. “And I’m sure you’ll be feeling them for quite some time. But if there’s one thing I feel you need to hear at the moment is…” he sighs. “It’s not your fault. Alright?”

“Isn’t it?” Shade asks.

“No, it’s not.” Sigma says. “It never was and it never will be. He controlled you, and that’s out of your hands. It’s not your fault. And I realize… it’s going to take a long time for you to believe that. But you’ll come around one day. As for Forrester…” he sighs. “He definitely should have given you some forewarning, I suppose. Maybe that’s not the best thing to say, but perhaps he should have prepared you for it rather than sprung it on you.”

“What, so I could be more hurt at an earlier time?” Shade asks.

“No, so you would be able to come to terms with it more easily.” Sigma says.

“I guess that makes sense.” Shade says after a pause, shifting uncomfortably.

“I’m going to give you some time to rest.” Sigma says. “Think about it. Come to terms.”

“Thank you.” Shade says quietly.

“If you want to talk, I’m always here for you.” Sigma says.

“Yeah.” Shade responds.

Sigma slowly steps back and then exits the room, leaving Shade in silence.

* * *

“So now what?” Harley asks as he, Sigma, Ter3zi, ‘Ascii’ Jade, and Roxy sit around a table.

“Nothing.” Sigma says. “Shatter’s contained, Universe Five is repaired, not much to do now except continue with the cleanup operations.”

“What about Chrono?” Roxy asks. “You said she was gone. And what about your other four kids? Any way of fixing them?”

“They were doomed from the start.” Sigma says. “But we felt immoral simply destroying them, we thought they deserved to exist.”

“To be honest, I was always a bit surprised at that one.” Ter3zi says. “Considering how immoral our organization already is.”

“Take morality where you can.” Sigma responds. “We don’t have nearly enough of it.”

“You can say that again.” Ascii says.

“By the way, what’s the plan without Forrester?” Roxy asks. “Actually now that I think about it, was he even in charge of anything?”

“To be honest, he kind of ran errands.” Sigma says. “He might have said that he did certain things, but he mainly made those up so he could sound like he had a greater purpose. But mainly, he was fine with doing the occasional task we told him to do. That was about it.”

“He was on the Zodiac Counsel, wasn’t he?” Ascii asks.

“Well, he’s going to be.” Sigma says. “From this perspective, anyway. Not entirely certain why. I think he causes a ruckus and it's because he’s starting to slip a little, so he needs something to both keep him in check and apply that ruckus to.”

“He was a strange person.” Ascii says.

“You are certainly correct about that one.” Ter3zi says. “By the way, I can tell that quite a few of you want to know how contained Shatter really is, judging by the looks on your faces. The answer is very. He’s stuck up in Alpha-Charlie-7, and he’ll be there for some time, Loki style.”

“What?” Harley asks, confused.

“Loki.” Ter3zi repeats. “The Norse myth version.”

“Oh.” Harley says, nodding. “What, tied up with acid dripping on him?”

“Sort of.” Ter3zi says. “Can’t remember the full extent of it, but it both isn’t painful but also is. Bit of a paradox.”

“Hmm.” Sigma says. “Derojafangar.” he pauses to gulp for a moment. “I can’t remember what it means, but while it doesn’t exist here, it’s a Norwegian word in a Bravo-Whiskey-34 world, some vikings discovered the stuff, we just picked up on it. It’s a magical technique, it places the victim in a point between pain and bliss. Essentially paralyzes them. And they paradoxically feel everything and nothing.”

“That’s strange.” Roxy says.

“Sure is.” Ter3zi says.

“Well, what are we going to do now?” Harley says. “I can feel that all this is drawing to a close, but it almost feels… anticlimactic. Unfinished.”

“I feel it too.” Ascii says.

“We all do.” Ter3zi says. “This whole end is meant to feel a bit off. Besides, what’s so wrong with something feeling unfinished? Life isn’t obliged to give us all the answers.”

“Suppose it ain’t.” Harley says, sighing.

“Well, since we don’t have to do anything, I’m going to go give Dance a call.” Ascii says, and stands and walks off.

“Back to Two I go then.” Roxy says, standing up and stepping backwards through a portal of energy and vanishing.

“I’m off.” Ter3zi says, patting Sigma on the shoulder as she walks off, humming to herself.

“So, will Shade be alright?” Harley asks as he and Sigma are left in silence.

“Oh yeah.” Sigma says. “He’s a tough kid, even if he doesn’t realize or believe it. He’ll be sad for some time, I’m sure, but eventually he’ll get over it.”

“Think it might mess with him?” Harley asks. “If he ever goes to Endstuck and meets Groves, Forrester’s past self… think it might deter him?”

“You’re saying it wrong.” Sigma says. “Endstück. Subtly different. Bit more ‘oo’ in the u. D and s sounds more like ‘sh’.”

“Correcting me now then, huh?” Harley says, chuckling.

“Will it deter him?” Sigma wonders aloud, sighing. “I don’t know. Might, a little bit. Will probably be rather awkward. But he’ll manage.”

“Speaking of Endstuck…” Harley trails off, then pauses. “Sorry, Endstück,” he corrects, “Is it time for… whatever that cycle you’ve got going on?”

“Don’t think so yet.” Sigma says. “Pretty sure the Zodiac Counsel members still need to be properly gathered for it, as it always goes. Not entirely sure though, I only receive so much of The Administrator’s thoughts.”

“Hmm.” Harley says. “I see. What are you doing after this?”

“Well, just as Sarrus is running Golf-213, and Umbra’s running Omega-001,” Sigma pauses to shiver, “I’ve got to head back to Sierra-Nevada-32 and check in on the psychological aftermath of the Solomon Project, check back on Upsilon-98 and see the differences in the loop, then check out whatever that incident was in Echo-76.”

“Oh yeah, I heard about that.” Harley says. “What was it?”

“Echo-76 had a blip of some kind. It was playing out like it was supposed to, then it went dark for a little while, before returning to normal as if nothing happened.” Sigma says. “Weirdest thing. Not sure what it’s about, but I’m sure I’ll see.”

“Yeah.” Harley says.

“What are you gonna do?” Sigma asks. “You don’t look like you have many plans.”

“No.” Harley says. “No I don’t. No orders for me either, as you’re covering the stuff I might have covered. So, not much to do. Not a lot to do at home, either.”

“Hmm.” Sigma says. “Maybe take up a hobby.”

“Maybe, yeah.” Harley says. “Thinking of spending some time fishing, what after all this. Always wanted to do it, I suppose this is the first time I’ve, well… had a moment.”

“Mhmm.” Sigma sighs. “This job rules our lives.”

“It certainly does.” Harley says quietly as Sigma disappears through a portal, leaving Harley alone in the quiet. With that, Harley pulls out his computer and adds another document to his Yggdrasil folder, titled ‘Act V Act II: Shade’, which he rewrites as Shatter and swaps Act V Act I’s title of ‘Converge’ out with ‘Shade’, scratching another name off his list.

~~ The Inevitable End of All But Me ~~

~~ XX-Beta-12 ~~

~~ The Solomon Project ~~

~~ Act I: Ascendance ~~

~~ Act II: Defyers ~~

~~ Act III: Protectors ~~

~~ Act IV: Controllers ~~

~~ Intermission: Zero Day ~~

~~ Act V Act I: Shade ~~

~~ Act V Act II: Shatter ~~

> Fiction to Reality

Golf-213

Dimensional Drabbles

Endstück

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you get that reference with the The Story So Far song, you're a legend.  
> Anticlimax. Subversion of expectations?  
> Sorry 'bout that Shade. Sorry 'bout that Forrester.  
> On a serious note, grief.  
> Grief is difficult, and everyone processes their grief differently. Some people lose others and barely feel anything. Shade's coping mechanism is essentially long hours of dissociation, which is kind of my coping mechanism as well. He definitely won't be getting over Forrester's death anytime soon, and neither will anybody else. Expect that in the future, anyone that happens to read this series written by an aspiring writer with too much time on his hands.  
> Anyway, that ends Act V Act II: Shatter, and with it, this 7-part series. I'll get to writing the next installment, which is more standalone. See you around.

**Author's Note:**

> Reference to M.C Escher that's my favourite M.C by Unda, we'll see those guys later actually. Sort of.


End file.
